Of Snakes and Chemistry
by Phantomkizz
Summary: I'm crap at summaries. Come take a look inside. lolz
1. Chapter 1

Phantomkizz: Since I'm lazy (or not) I decided to go ahead and put all the chs I have of this story together. I have a few things to say first- warnings etc.

Ok, my version of Fenrir is COMPLETELY OOC. Only thing similar is they're both werewolfs. Second, my Blaise is white. No, I'm not racist, that's just what I thought he was and I have issues seeing him otherwise. ^^'

This was the first story I ever attempted to write out and am STILL attempting to write out. Ergo, there are places where I got tired of revising so they may be cliché etc. Also, some people may or may not view my OC's as the dreaded-EEP!- Mary Sues! I'll admit, I have issues when it comes to the line between interesting and phenomenal. But whatever. = P

Hope you enjoy, if you don't there are always plenty of other stories out there! ^^

Ch.1

"Stephanie honey, we need to be going!" A woman with black hair and warm brown eyes yelled from her place at the door of a huge manor. The woman appeared to be 5"8' in her _very _early twenties. But truthfully she was in her late thirties.

A teenage girl hollered back, "Coming!", she said as she dragged her large trunk down the mahogany stairs quite forcefully.

"Good lord child! You're making enough noise to raise the dead! Why didn't you shrink it first?" The girl opened her mouth to say something and then closed it with a puzzled look, "I don't know. I wasn't thinking I guess." She said as she quickly shrunk her trunk.

"And you're sure you don't want to catch the train there?"

"Yes. I'm fine. I'm sure things would probably be uncomfortable there, what with me not knowing where to sit and whom to sit with."

"You know that Blaise would be there sweetie."

"Yeah, but I'm sure he'd be busy having a bloody fabulous time with his friends that attend there."

"Language. And you know him better than that. You're his best friend after all. You, my dear, are just making excuses.", the woman said quite pointedly.

The girl pouted and said quite simply, "So?"

"You just watch. I'm sure Blaise will welcome you into open arms as soon as he sees you, and his friends will welcome you, as well."

The girl heaved a sigh "You're right. Thank you aunt Sanya."

"But of course."

And with that they stepped outside of their manor and Sanya apparated them to just in front of the barrier surrounding the infamous school of witchcraft and wizardry.

"So this is Warthogs?"

Sanya burst into a fit of giggles. "Hogwarts honey. Hogwarts."

"Oh. Yeah. Right." She said trying to fight off a blush. She cleared her throat. "Lets just go, before I embarrass myself anymore."

Right as the sorting of the first years had begun Draco found his eyes wondering, and staying, on a girl. What did he think of the girl? _'Holy Hell.' _

The girl was sitting beside a dark haired woman at the teachers table. Draco noticed that she was looking at Blaise and that they were mouthing to each other back and forth. To Draco's amusement she made the sign of being hung and stuck out her tongue and crossed her eyes. Then Blaise mouthed, what seemed to be, 'I know, right?'. The girl rolled her eyes and said 'Bloody long-ass sorting.', that or she said 'Buddy Wong is snoring.'. Draco was going for the first. Blaise and the girl's conversation was cut short as Dumbledore began to speak.

"We have everyone sorted except for our new transfer student from Beaux Batons. Her name is Stephanie Romaine. I expect you to treat her nicely. Now come here my dear, so you can be properly sorted."

The girl seemed to hesitate but after getting an encouraging look from the dark haired woman beside her, she got up and approached the stool. She gave a ravishing smile to everyone watching her.

The sorting hat barely touched her head before it announced "SLYTHERIN!!!". Cheers erupted from the Slytherin table. The loudest cheers were coming from the male population of the table, naturally. Now that Draco could see her more properly, he noticed how angelic she seemed.

Her eyes were a pure liquid silver. Her hair, white and brilliant enough to match the sun, curled ever so gently and loosely at the ends and came to rest at her upper back. Her skin was of the palest porcelain. She wore a black, velvety shirt with long sleeves that flared out at the ends with a slightly high rising collar that stopped just below her dangly, dragon earrings, and went low enough to reveal skin, but short enough that it kept things to the imagination. She had a black bodice that brought out her hourglass figure and topped the outfit off with leather pants and spiked high-heeled black boots. All the black she was wearing brought out her absolute paleness.

She was heading Blaise's way, which happened to be beside his other best friend, Draco. Draco quickly whispered to Blaise, "How do you know her? Is she taken?"

"Wow mate. Quick on the draw, are we? She's a long time friend of mine and as far as I know, if she's not going out with Victor anymore, she's single."

Dumbledore had yet one more announcement.

"Joining us this year, teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, is Professor Romaine." The tall dark haired woman stood, smiled, and waved at the students. Dumbledore continued, "Do you have anything you'd like to say to the students?"

Still standing, she looked like she was thinking of something to say when her spell timer went off. "Oop. Sorry, gotta run, less you want one of the school wings blown off, that is. TALLY HO!", she yelled over her shoulder which caused a lot of the students to burst into a fit of giggles. Dumbledore cleared his throat and told the students to dig in.

"'ey Zabini, how you doin'?", Stephanie said in her best Brooklyn/Jersey mob boss accent.

"Great! Bloody fabulous. Nice to see ya mate. How are ye?", Blaise said in his best Jack Sparrow impression.

"Stephanie is good. Stephanie is also glad to hear you're great.", Stephanie said, trying not to laugh.

"ARGH!", Blaise exclaimed before taking his long time best friend into a hug. Blaise released his hold and moved from his spot between Stephanie and Draco and said with his arm draped over Stephanie's shoulder, "Stephanie, I'd like you to meet me first mate, other'n you of course, Draco Malfoy. Draco, this is Stephanie."

"Nice to meet you Draco."

"Likewise."

They shook hands, sat down and began eating. Everyone asking Stephanie why she transferred and such.

"I wanted to come here because, to be honest, Beauxbatons just was not for me. All the girls there acted like they had a bloody stick up their ass."

A few moments later a girl walked up to their group of ppl. She gave Draco a look of love, aw, and really creepy obsession. The look he gave her when she turned away didn't match hers, at all. As a matter of fact, it kind of reminded Stephanie of the look that her aunt gave the neighbor's dog when it decided to take a shit in their yard. Pansy offered her hand to Stephanie to shake and said in this horrible high pitched, nasally voice, "Hi. I'm Pansy."

"Oh. Hi. You know...I think you would do well at Beaux Batons." As soon as she said it, everyone that had been listening to their prior conversation began laughing. Pansy didn't seem to like being the center of a joke. She shot Stephanie a glare, "Keep making jokes about me. I don't care. But know this, you better watch your back."

"If you don't care, then why should I watch my back, Daisy?"

"IT'S PANSY!", she yelled over the laughter. "COME ON DRAY."

Draco followed her, looking regretful and miserable.

Walking down the hallway after lunch to the dorm Blaise, and Stephanie walked side by side, chatting about random things. When all of a sudden the Weasley twins came skipping down the hall and confronted the duo.

"Hello my lady." One of them said bowing.

"Pleasure, doll." The other said.

"Gred-" "-and Forge" "Weasley." "At your-" "-service." Then they both continued skipping down the hall. Stephanie just stood there. Then she laughed and asked "What was that?"

"The top two pranksters in this school." Blaise supplied.

"Gred and Forge...what kind of names are those?"

"Haha. Just part of their weird twin thing. Their names are actually Fred and George."

"Ohhhhh."

At that moment they arrived at the Slytherin dorms and were told the password. 'Scorpius'.

They entered and sat down on the sofa at the fireplace. Finally relaxing after being so strung out.


	2. Chapter 2

Ch.2

The morning had come to find Draco and Blaise sitting in the commons waiting for Stephanie to come down. They both jumped and stared at each other when they heard a bloodcurdling scream.

"PANSY!!!!"

They saw Pansy come flitting down the stairs.

"Oh no you don't, you little witch!"

Then, right before Pansy exited the room, Stephanie came down the stairs. Draco and Blaise gaped at her and her hair, or lack of. She had a peter pan type hair-cut. She still looked gorgeous, but apparently that didn't matter to her because she was obviously very pissed. She was still in her pajamas at that.

She turned to Pansy and shouted the word 'impuerto' as she brought up her arm and said 'nati-eh gryffindora!' and extended her arm towards Pansy. The spell hit her and knocked her over. She sat up looking like she wanted to scream bloody murder, but doubled over holding her head and belched up slugs instead and promptly hiccuped. And then the last utterance of the incantation kicked in and Pansy was sporting a red mane, golden tail with a red tip, and alternating red and gold nails. Pansy jumped up crying and ran out of the room, the portrait door slamming behind her. Blaise and Draco turned their attention from the closed door and looked at the smirking form of Stephanie. Draco was the first to speak up, "Bloody hell, that was awesome!...remind me not to get on your bad side."

"That's a…weird way to react to your girlfriend getting hexed."

Draco shrugged and looked away, causing Stephanie to raise her eyebrow.

"Where'd you learn that anyways?", Blaise said, breaking the small tension that had settled upon the trio.

"Well, I found it in one of the books in the library at the manor."

Blaise began to grin, "That wouldn't have, perchance, been the Slytherin manor?"

Stephanie smiled innocently. "Maybe."

Draco's mind was spinning with all these questions.

"Slytherin Manor? How do you have access to that? Father can't even get in there."

Stephanie turned to him, "You mean you don't know? And here it was I thought everyone knew."

"Knew what?"

"Well....through some long and distant link, my aunt and I, along with my distant cousins, are of Slytherin blood."

Draco was doing a very lovely impression of a goldfish when he flopped on a chair.

"Are you serious?"

"No, I just find it funny to see peoples glazed expressions when I tell them that.", Stephanie said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"As much as I'd like to chat about Stephie's blood relations all day, I think we should head down to breakfast."

"Right.", Draco said as he stood up from the chair.

"I would come with you guys but I have to get this,", she said motioning to her hair, "fixed."

"K, see ya Steph."

"Bye." Draco said, with that glazed over 'no body's home' look.

Stephanie ran upstairs and got dressed and ran over to her aunt Sanya's room, hoping that she'd catch her before she headed to breakfast.

Luckily, when Stephanie knocked on her aunt's door, it opened. Sanya opened her mouth in greeting but stopped and snorted before asking Stephanie what happened.

"House-mate."

"Mm-hmmm. I see. Well, better get you fixed up then."

Draco and Blaise were sitting in the first class of the day, Transfigurations, waiting eagerly for Stephanie, wondering what was taking so long to fix her hair. Draco looked at the clock on the wall noticing that class was almost ready to begin.

Professor Mc Gonagall walked up the main aisle of the classroom to close the door and had to move to the side quickly, to avoid being hit by a snidget(more commonly know as snitch) that flew to the middle of the aisle and turned into Stephanie and landed. Stephanie jumped to the side, sitting rigidly in the seat beside Draco that he had left for her. If it wasn't for Draco's quick seeker skills, Stephanie would have been in the floor. But luckily Draco caught her and the chair, putting them both upright. Mc Gonagall turned to Stephanie in surprise.

Stephanie grinned at her, "Hello professor."

"You're an animagus?"

"Yes."

Mc Gonagall smiled at her, "20 points to Slytherin for a good example of the transfigurance of oneself."

"Thank you professor."

Mc Gonagall gave them their assignment. Stephanie rolled her eyes and banged her head on the desk. Draco looked at her. "What's wrong?"

"Transfiguring pennies into mice. We covered that at the end of last year over at BB.", she said with a sigh. Then rather quickly without any thought she turned the penny into a white mouse and then flopped back in her chair.

"You look kind of red in the face."

"You try being pale...ok, so you are really pale, but that's not important. I'm red in the face because I ended up running from my aunt's room, which is sort of in the dungeons, to the staircase, when it decided to switch on me. So then I turned into a snidget, because that's the fastest thing I could think of, and flew as fast as I could to this classroom."

"Oh. I was just saying.", Draco said before turning back to his...thing. Needless to say, his penny wasn't looking very mouse-like.

All of their classes seemed to go this way. Apparently Hogwarts was a couple weeks behind BB in teaching. Better behind than ahead. In all the classes, Stephanie tried not to stick out too much. But in the last class of the day, she had no choice in the matter.

Stephanie walked into the dark and cold dungeons classroom and took her seat. She felt a bit creeped when the teacher came walking, quite quickly, into the classroom with his robe flowing dramatically behind him in his wake. One word coming to mind to describe him perfectly, black. Except his sickly white skin, that is. He stood at the front of the class, his dark robe draped around him, his arms folded. He looked over the class, surveying them. Then he picked out just the student he was looking for.

"Miss Romaine, I understand that you're a descendant of one of the founders of this school."

"Yes, professor, that's right."

"Understand that you will not get special attention."

"Of course not, professor.", she said, nodding, fully agreeing with him.

"What are Mancalla rinds and their uses?"

Stephanie got a blank look on her face, as she always did when she began gathering the information in her brain to spew out. Snape took her blank look the wrong way and began to speak,

"Clearly you-"

"Mancalla rinds are the outer shell, or more accurately rind of a moderately rare fruit that is typically found in dark areas, normally forests. Unless they are wizard grown, but in that case the properties in which they are used for are not as powerful. Research is being done on that matter but, so far, there are no results.", Stephanie stopped long enough to take a breath, "The uses of Mancalla rinds are typically used in transforming potions. But only of the body. Or physical form of something, rather."

Snape smirked. "I'm impressed. Could you tell me then, what it takes for a transforming potion of the mind and/or spirit?"

"Nightshade. Or more precisely, white Nightshade. Any other Nightshade is used in poison, but you know that. Now back to the question, Nightshade is the key ingredient for mind and/or spirit changing potions, that being said, it is an extremely rare flower. Mainly due to the ministry tracking down any traces of it and killing it because potions that alter a person's soul are illegal in every form of the word....sorry if I ranted.", she finished off with a smile.

"Ah. But you for-"

"Oh! Sorry to interrupt you again professor, but another thing is that if applied under the right circumstances, white Nightshade and Mancalla rinds can be paired together to create a combination of a body altering and spirit and/or mind altering potion. But if done wrong the two ingredients have a violent reaction to each other and explode."

"Excellent. 8 points from Slytherin for interrupting me-twice." Steph got ready to protest but stopped immediately."35 points to Slytherin for an explanation that couldn't have been said better even by myself."

Stephanie walked out of the classroom after the bell, beaming. She loved this place! Draco came up beside her. "How'd you know all of that? You're like a bloody encyclopedia!"

"As it turns out my aunt Sanya is brilliant at potions and the like."

"That makes sense."

"Yep. Hey, I'll meet up with you guys later in the commons. I'm gonna go check up with aunt Sanya."

They parted their ways as Stephanie headed just up the hall from the potions classroom to her aunts room.


	3. Chapter 3

Ch.3

Stephanie walked to the left side of the end of the potions hallways and climbed the ladder that was inside the bottom of a circular tower. She got to the top and started up the stairs, being careful to avoid the second step up due to it being a sinking step. She finished climbing the staircase and knocked on the door.

"Come in."

Stephanie walked inside her aunt's room and sat down on the sofa.

"So how did everything go? I know you did wonderful in my class. And someone else told me that you were 'A master in the making'. Probably should have been A mistress in the making....oh...well that just makes you sound like a hooker."

"Uh....thank you aunt Sanya. And everything went great. Especially potions. I've never been so happy that you're a potions fanatic and genius in my life."

"Oh stop it!",Sanya said with mock flattery.

"So how did your day go? I know that my class thought you were 'cool'."

"Ah. That's nice to hear."

Stephanie thought back to how her class with her aunt had been.

~*Dun dun dunnnn FLASHBACK....dunnnnnnnnnnn*~

Stephanie, Blaise and Draco walked into her aunts class chatting about their horrible experiences that they've had with candy before. Namely the infamous 'Bertty Botts every flavor bean's.

"The first one I had was grass. It wasn't that bad actually.", Blaise said.

"Lucky you. I got earwax. That. Was disgusting.", Draco said, shuddering at the thought.

"Well, I was lucky enough to have gotten chocolate.", remarked Steph.

"You would have.", Blaise said, slightly jealous.

"But then I got pepper!", she said scrunching up her face.

"…how do you think Berty knew what each flavor should taste like?, Draco said wit ha pondering expression.

"Ew.", Blaise and Stephanie said together.

All three of them giggled.

They all took their seats and Stephanie began looking around for her aunt and then realized that she was obviously going to do her 1st day of school prank. She saw the large dragon curled up in the corner of the large classroom. Looking like it was sleeping. She remembered telling Blaise about the prank and she saw his eyes widen as realization set in.

Stephanie was waiting patiently for all the students to come in and the bell to ring. As soon as class started, the 'fireworks' would happen.

The bell rang and, on signal, the door at the back of the classroom slammed shut and a few of the lights went out making the room dim. A few of the students were clearly uncomfortable. One of them voicing out "Where's professor Romaine?", Stephanie recognized him as Ron Weasley. And again, on queue the dragon's eyes popped open and it stood up. Then in the technical term that everyone knows, all hell broke loose. The dragon turned to the students and roared. All of the students stood up and ran to the back of the classroom. Stephanie wanted to just sit where she was but she knew that if she did her aunt would persistently roar at her until she stood up and joined the class at the back. She got up slowly and Draco shouted, "Are you daft?! Run!", he said as he grabbed her arm and ran, giving Stephanie no choice but to go along. They were at the back of the group. Everyone realizing that the door was locked.

"Oh dear. I'm afraid you're in a bad position standing beside me and all. Here, allow me to lend you emotional support.", Stephanie said putting her arm around his shoulders.

Draco watched in terror as the dragon walked to stand in front of him, only about 1 foot away. The dragon roared and then raised its claws to slash at him. He scrunched his eyes and waited for it....but it never came. He opened his eyes to see the dragons claws poised in the air and then it turned into the professor and said, "Boo." Then she heard a few thumps indicating to her that a few of the students had fainted. Stephanie turned to Draco.

"You didn't fair half bad. You look a little ghostly though.", Stephanie said and patted him on the back. Then she watched as he hit the floor."Never mind then." Then she heard her aunt start to speak.

"Congratulations class. You all would have died wonderfully. Ever heard of fighting back? Obviously these past five years have not done you all justice.", she said before turning around and walking towards the front of the classroom, the torches relighting themselves as she went down the aisle. "By the end of this month, I will have taught you enough that you should be able to fight of a dragon. And much more.", she said and turned to face the class with a smile.

"Now, come up here if one of your friends have fainted and I'll have you give them a bit of this," she indicated to the bottle of some white liquid that she held in her hand, "to bring them back to our world." Stephanie looked over to Blaise to ask him to go for Draco before realizing that he was out cold as well.

"Oh. Just kidding then." She walked up to the front, "Two doses."

"I noticed. My, aren't your friends so brave?"

"What did you expect?"

"That.", she said pointing at all the students on the floor.

Stephanie went to her friends and knelt by Blaise first. Next, she put her hand at the back of Draco's head and gently lifted him up before pouring some of the liquid into his mouth. She waited and watched him stir as he came to. He finally opened his eyes and said, "Steph, I had this horrible dream that I almost got killed by a dragon but then it turned into your aunt."

"Uh, that wasn't a dream."

"....oh. I guess that would explain why I'm on the floor of the DADA class."

"Yup."

~*End flashback*~

"Well, other than the few casualties, my day was great.", she said and then laughed, "That and Severus came in my first class after hearing all the ruckus. I had already done my show of course so I told him to come by if he had a free period and see for himself. I also told him not to be startled by anything that happened. That way I wouldn't end up being jinxed or cursed or something."

"Severus? Who's Severus?"

"Oh. Professor Snape."

"Oh, the creepy guy."

"Yeah. I mean no."

"He is too creepy."

"No....he's just...."

"Creepy."

"Different."

"Differently creepy."

"Shut up."

"Just sayin'. And you know I'm right."

"Yes well, it's about time for dinner so I suggest we take our leave."

"Hmph. You're right."

Stephanie and Sanya were on their way to the great hall when a staircase decided to change on them.

"Bloody staircase!", they both said at the same time.

"Well, looks like we have no choice."

"Right."

Draco was getting impatient waiting for Stephanie. Then he saw the cute snidget again. It flew over to and hit Blaise and landed in the seat between Draco and Blaise, before turning into Stephanie.

"I hate that staircase. I really do."

Draco was going to respond with something along the line of 'It hates you too, apparently' but was interrupted when a raven came flying into the great hall being chased by Trelawny. "Come back here, you vile harbinger of death!"

In a liquid motion the raven turned into Sanya. "You crazy hag! It's me!"

"...oh. I'm incredibly sorry."

"Mm-hm. I bet you are.", Sanya said before walking to the front of the great hall and taking her seat.

"Long day?"

"Shut up Severus."

Sanya thought she saw the hint of a smile.

"Sadistic bastard."

"You already know me so well."

"Psh."

Everyone in the great hall was laughing at the scene that had just been played before them.

Stephanie, Blaise and Draco were sitting in the common room on the sofa. Stephanie sitting in between Draco and Blaise. Blaise and Stephanie laughing at Draco's impression of Trelawny. "Vile harbinger of death!" and of course Stephanie's fave. "Blah blah. Blah blah blah blah death. Death death, death. Deathity death deathity."

Then Blaise blurted out, startling both Draco and Stephanie and all the other poor Slytherins that happened to be in the room at the time, "I forgot to mention that Steph here is a bloody brilliant flyer!"

"Blaise, would you quit with that!"

"But it's true! She even beat Victor Krum!"

"He probably let me win."

"Bull. But you're still a brilliant flyer."

"Oh shut up. I'm sure Draco probably doesn't care about any of that."

"Actually, I happen to be the quidditch captain for Slytherin this year.", Draco said speaking up.

" Really?," she said surprised, "Please don't give anything Blaise here said any mind. I don't want to make the position because of reputation."

"Don't worry about it. What position are you trying out for?"

"I don't really know. I'm kindly at a loss. At Beaxbatons I was seeker, but I'm sure that you have that position, so I haven't a clue."

"I guess we'll see then."

"I guess so."

"Ah, I scheduled tryouts for the day after tomorrow."

"Okay. That gives me time to practice tomorrow."

"You need to practice that like you need to sing the funky chicken dance."

"Not true."

Blaise rolled his eyes.

"Whatever."

Stephanie gave a huge yawn.

"I think I'm gonna hit the sack."

"Yeah me too."

"I'm beat."

They separated and went to bed, ready for what the next day would bring them.


	4. Chapter 4

Ch.4

Draco and Blaise were in the commons waiting for Stephanie.

"Is she a late sleeper or something?"

"Nah. She just likes to listen to her music before starting the day."

"Oh. Because for some reason I can't see her as a late riser."

"Hmm, I wonder if it's because you can't possibly think of your angel as being anything but perfect.", Blaise said in a teasing voice.

"Shut up!", Draco said before putting Blaise in a head lock.

"Having fun you two?"

"Stephanie! How long have you been there?", Draco said in shock.

"I just walked in."

Stephanie had her broom in hand and her eyes were dilated.

"Been flying Steph?"

"Yeah."

Draco looked at the broom and realized what it was. "Bloody hell! Is that a Viper 360?!"

"Hm? Oh, yeah. Aunt Sanya got it for me over the summer."

"Can I touch it?"

Stephanie looked at Draco. "Um, you're kind of scaring me."

"Sorry.", he said, still not taking his eyes off the broom.

"Uh....here." , she said handing the white broom over to him.

"Wow. It's so light."

"It flies. That's kind of the point."

"Yeah.", he said, enthralled.

Stephanie walked over to the staircase, getting ready to go up and get her things, before leaving to the great hall.

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but I need to put it away.", then she brought her pointer finger and thumb up to her mouth and whistled. The slick, white broom zoomed over to her and she grabbed it with her left hand and walked up the stairs.

Blaise waited until Stephanie was up the stairs before saying, "Her brooms bigger than yours."

"Huh? Oh shut up!", then he socked Blaise on the shoulder.

"Just sayin'!"

Stephanie came down the stairs in her uniform slinging her bag over her shoulder. The trio made their way up to the great hall.

The day went pretty much the same as it had the day before. The only class that really did anything different in it, that she hadn't learned previously, was her aunt Sanyas.

Sanya closed the door with a smooth motion of her hand.

"Good morning class. You can all go ahead and put your books away. I want you to get out a piece of parchment. I will be teaching you a secrecy charm today."

A student raised their hand.

"Yes?"

"How's this gonna help us defeat a dragon?"

"We will get to defeating that dragon in due time. There are worse things than a dragon.", she paused, "I'm sure that you have all heard the saying that knowledge is power? Well sure, dragons are smart, but we are smarter. And I am rambling…I think. But what I'm trying to say is that....if you had a secret. Something that you didn't want anyone to know. Say it was something embarrassing that happened to you. You certainly wouldn't want an enemy to know it, now would you? And why is that? Because they would use it against you. Either using it for blackmail or just telling it anyways. But of course you will have to pay strict attention because this spell is not easy to pull off."

"How do you know that we'll be able to?"

"Well....OK. How many of your parents went here when they were kids?"

She looked at the raised hands. Noting one in particular.

"I'm going to tell you a little...story. Some time back, there were 3 boys, technically 4 but I don't count that one. And though they were in Gryffindor, they were sly, cunning, and brilliant pranksters. The best that this school has ever seen, I do believe. They hardly ever got caught. And the reason for this is because of a map they had. It was of the school. It showed everyone's positions. But only the three of them could see it unless someone else knew the password. Of course....I think this school has been waiting for another group of Mara-uh....maray men. Merry men. Ahem.", she looked at the student she had been interested in. He had a reminiscent look on his face. 'Poor child. He never got the chance to know them all....as they were together.'

"Well, anyways. You all need to write something down. Or draw. Whatever you want. Once you have that done, you need to point your wand at your parchment and integrate what you have on your parchment into a spell. In that spell you must also have the password integrated into it. You may begin."

Class went by without any hitches. When the class was done Harry Potter came up to the front.

"Professor?"

"Yes?"

"What....what were the names of the pranksters?"

Sanya smiled at him with a twinkle in her eyes, "Remus, Sirius....and James."

"Thank you professor."

"You're welcome.", she watched as the boy began to leave.

He stopped and turned around, "How do you know about the-"

"Map?"

"Yeah."

"Well, Sirius and I were really close friends. He showed it to me once. I don't think he ever told the others though. They probably would have strung him up by his toes if he had."

He laughed. "Goodbye Professor."

"Goodbye Harry."

Stephanie finally found a way to part from the boys. She changed into her form-fitting light blue, shiny uniform from when she played quidditch at BB. Got her broom and ran to the quidditch pitch, trying not to be seen. Little did she know that Blaise had already figured what she was going to do and was hiding with Draco. They stood up from their place in the stands and watched her. She was spinning, corkscrewing, flipping, and using her broom as a surf board.

"Bloody hell! You weren't kidding when you said she could fly!"

"I know! She's in denial."

Stephanie flew high into the sky then jumped off her broom.

Draco jumped up in shock. Blaise put his hand on is arm.

"Relax. She does this all the time."

He watched as she continued falling while doing acrobatic tricks. He heard a shrill noise and watched her broom tear over to her and she landed on it with two feet. Her left foot in front of the right, her hands on her hips.

"She's-she's....I don't know!"

"Unbelievable?"

"YES!!!"

Stephanie heard something over the rush of the wind and looked over to see Draco and Blaise watching her. She blushed and slipped, falling backwards. She whistled and landed on her broom, laying flat on it, grasping it with her hands. She felt her fingertips grazing the ground. Draco's was clutching the rail on the balcony of the stands.

"I thought she was gonna die!", he waited for a response from Blaise, "Blaise? Blai-", he looked beside him and saw Blaise on the floor beside him passed out. "Oh. I guess you did too." Stephanie came and hovered in front of him.

"What are you guys doing here?!...uh...where's Blaise?"

Draco pointed to beside him.

"Oh."

"And why are you so....touchy about people seeing you fly? You're awesome!"

"I dunno. I always feel like I'm showing off."

"When it comes that naturally I think it stops being 'showing of' and passes off as talent instead."

"I...suppose."

Stephanie landed and met up with Draco on the ground. Draco had to carry Blaise inside with a levitation spell.

Before ascending the stairs to the boys dorms Draco turned to Steph. "I'm looking forward to seeing you fly in tryouts tomorrow."

"Well I'm nervous."

"I'm captain. And from what I saw, you can have any position you want."

"That's just it. I dunno. Maybe...Chaser. Yeah."

"Chaser it is then."

They both parted ways. A little bit up the stairs Stephanie heard a 'thump' and "Sorry Blaise." She giggled. Silly boys.


	5. Chapter 5

Ch.5

"Steph! Steph! Stephaniiiieeee!"

"What?", Stephanie said, rather irritated at being woken up and having the suns evil rays shining perkily into her retina's.

"Get up! Draco and I can't wait anymore!", Blaise said while making hand motions and trying to pull Stephanie's lithe body from in between the silver satin sheets and deep green matching comforter. He was failing quite miserably.

"Let me go!", she said as she swatted Blaise upside the head with her bare foot. Big mistake. Blaise wrapped his hand around her ankle and began tickling her foot.

"No!!! Aha! QUIT IT! HAHA!", she tried to say through her laughter. Then she kicked Blaise in the chest with her free foot sending him off her bed and to the ground. Unfortunately Blaise didn't let go of her foot and she ended up sprawled on top of him. Naturally, at that moment, Draco came upstairs.

"What's all this noise? Uh, am I interrupting anything?"

"Oh yeah. Can't you tell we were just about to get it on during the daytime in the girls dorms?", Blaise said, being as sarcastic as possible. Stephanie took a pillow off her bed and smacked him with it. "Yeah baby! I like it rough!" Stephanie looked at him blushing like mad. She stood up quickly and said in a small voice, "I'm gonna go get dressed now.", she said and went through her black trunk, that was adorned with opals and platinum, and got her uniform before heading for the bathroom.

She came out after getting dressed. She put her pajamas in the hamper and began fiddling with her tie.

"I can't tie these damn things!"

Draco stepped over to her and tied her tie for her.

"Show off."

"No. It's my responsibility to know how to tie a tie."

"Well whatever.", then she realized something.

"What are you two doing in the girls dorms?!"

"I told you! We got tired of waiting for you and decided to wake you up.", Blaise said, flailing his arms around.

"Well then let's go before you two get caught!"

"Yes ma'am!"

"Shut up."

On the way up to the great hall Stephanie remembered that quidditch tryouts were that day and she suddenly didn't feel very hungry anymore.

After poking her food around with a fork, she headed to Transfigurations with Draco and Blaise in their normal places at her sides.

They had yet another assignment that she had already covered at BB. Turn the object that you were given into a cat. Stephanie pointed her wand the object and said "Felis." Draco looked over at Stephanie to talk to her and saw a tiny white kitten in her place. It looked up at him with it's cute silver eyes and gave a soft 'mew'.

"Stephanie?"

"Mew.", the kitten put its paw on his arm and mewed again.

Draco pointed his wand at the kitten and said the spell, "Infinite incantatum." He watched in shock as the kitten turned back into Stephanie. Stephanie gave another mew. She blushed and lightly cleared her throat. "I-uh...must have had my wand backwards. Eh-heh."

All her classes seemed to go that way. In her second class, Herbology, she accidentally got the juice of some plant they were working on in her mouth and her entire body went numb. Luckily professor Sprout had a fix for that.

In Defense Against the Dark Arts, instead of using a spell to stun her practice frog, she turned it hot pink....and it glowed.

"Hmmm....somehow I don't think that worked so well."

"That's not funny aunt Sanya."

"I know. I don't think your adversary would have found it very funny either."

"Maybe they would have died of laughter."

Sanya remained silent.

Stephanie looked over at Draco for support and saw him trying to hide his smile while shaking his head.

As for Care of Magical creatures, the class went fine. Just when Stephanie thought her nerves were settled she tripped and landed in a puddle. Blaise and Draco cast a cleaning and drying charm on her to fix her up.

In potions she didn't blow anything up. But instead of making a healing potion she made veritaserum.

"How the bloody hell did I do that?! I don't even have the right ingredients!"

Professor Snape came over and looked at the clear, odorless mixture in her cauldron.

"How, indeed."

"Honestly professor, I have no clue. Today has not been going right at all."

"...Has someone cast an unlucky jinx on you?"

"No. My nerves are just awful! Hopefully I'll be back to normal tomorrow."

"Yes. Let's hope that you are.", then he cringed and sighed as he heard an explosion and walked over to Neville.

When the bell rang Stephanie got up and left the classroom heading for her dorm. Draco caught up with her along the way, seeing as she practically dashed out of the room.

"Why are you so nervous?"

"Well, you know."

"No. I don't know, because you couldn't possibly be nervous over tryouts."

"Erm."

"You are?! Jeez woman!"

"Well I can't help it!"

Draco heaved a sigh. "To each his own...or her." They parted ways. Stephanie got changed into her old uniform, grabbed her white, neatly groomed broom and went down the stairs. She met up with Blaise in the common room and he insisted that he go with her.

They arrived at the entrance to the pitch and she stood there and stared at the other people trying out. 'They're huge! And they're all guys!' She thought before turning around. Blaise grabbed her by the wrist.

"Get back here!", he pulled her back. "Now go."

"Okay. Right.", then she took the tiny magenta vile that hung on a necklace and opened it, pouring the contents into her mouth.

"Uh...what was that?"

"A dose of confidence."

He noticed that Stephanie's eyes hardened and she suddenly looked like she could take on the world.

"Go get 'em tiger."

"RAWR!"

She walked out onto the field in the pouring rain. She couldn't have been happier to have a waterproof uniform. She briskly walked over to the rest of the group, left faced and stood facing the captain like the others. The brutish guy beside her asked "What's with the little girl?" Draco was about to defend her when she said "We'll see who's the little girl once we get up in the air.", she said with her gaze centered in front of her. Draco smirked. He rather liked this confident side of her.

"Mount your brooms!"

Everyone mounted their brooms and hovered in the air. A few of them smirked when Stephanie floated high into the air with both her legs on one side, all of them thinking that she couldn't properly control her broom. Then she flipped off backwards, cut a flip and whistled for her broom. She landed on it standing, now at the same level as the others. Draco had a straight face, but inside he was grinning. Stephanie heard one of the guys go "damn." and she smirked.

"Begin!"

He watched as Stephanie immediately whipped by, stole the quaffle from one of the guys without even touching him, and threw it into the hoop. As Stephanie kept scoring they all began to get more aggressive towards her. Still amazed, but aggressive non-the-less. One of the times when she was going to score, a guy decided to fly straight towards her, like a game of chicken. She bent at the knees and jumped, kicking her foot into his back for momentum, landed on her broom at the other side of him and scored.

When Draco called the whistle everyone stopped what they were doing.

"I think it's safe to say that you'll be getting your position Stephanie. Come down here so I can see what the other potential chasers are made of." Stephanie nodded and did a hand stand at the tip of her broom, forcing it down. Her broom zoomed downward. She had her body straight and before she got to the ground she brought her legs forward and slowed to a stop. She took her rain goggles off and sat down comfortably on her broom.

"That was some wicked flying."

"You'll be amazed at what some confidence can do.", she said while lifting the tiny crystal shaped vile up. "I think aunt Sanya may have made it a bit too strong though."

"Why is that?"

"I feel kind of arrogant."

"Oh. Well, I think you deserve at least one moment of arrogance."

"You sound like Blaise."

"Oops.", he said, with his gray eyes still on the people in the air.

After he had made up his mind on what part each person was going to play, he called it quits and they headed inside.

Stephanie helped Draco gather up the things from the quidditch set. Except the bludgers because her and bludgers didn't mix too well.

They were in the Slytherin locker room and had put the kit away. Draco patted her on the back and his hand slipped on her rain soaked suit and made a squeaking noise. Then he kept rubbing his finger against her suit.

"Draco."

"Yes?"

"Would you please stop that?", she said as she giggled at the funny high pitched noises.

"Oh. Sorry."

They both headed for the door and slipped in a puddle of water, falling on their backs. They kind of laid there. Stephanie began bursting out laughing. Draco joined her with his own laughter. After laughing for a while they both stood up. Stephanie and Draco began to make their way back to Hogwarts. The rain was still unrelenting. They weren't even a fourth of the ways there.

"Draco....where's your broom?"

"I didn't bring it. Didn't think I'd need it. Of course, if I had it with me we could just fly back."

Stephanie thought on this for a moment.

"You could ride mine with me."

Draco was slightly nervous with the idea of riding on a broom with the one who held his affection. But seeing as what broom it was, he was greatly encouraged.

"Sure."

That only left one question unanswered.

"If you crash it, I will hex you."

"Like I would crash.", he said with a smirk.

Draco was beginning to have second doubts when he got on. Both of them were blushed slightly at the intimate position. When Draco leaned forward and the broom shot off, Stephanie wrapped her arms tightly around his waist. Stephanie could feel his muscles beneath his shirt and blushed harder as she had an urge to run her hands up-under his shirt to feel them, flesh to flesh. _'Bad Stephanie, bad!'_.

They made it to the school and walked inside. Their footsteps echoing on the stone floors. Stephanie ran up to the girls dorms, dropped off her broom, and dashed back down to the common room where the fire was.

"Heat!"

Draco came down the stairs in black silk pajamas.

"At least you were wearing something water proof."

"Oh....I didn't think about that."

She looked over at Draco. He was shivering. She took the Blanket that she had yanked off her bed and put it around him.

"Here you go."

"What? No, you don't need to do that."

"Sure I do.", she said with a smile.

"...thank you."

"Welcome. This should help too.", Stephanie said as she cast a drying spell on his hair. She giggled as it fluffed up.

"That felt funny....what'd you do?"

"I just dried it. It's a tad bit fluffed is all."

She crawled and sat on her legs behind him as she ran her fingers through his hair to try and fix it.

"Oh! It's so soft."

"Yeah.", he said with a blush on his face.

A while later Draco fell back against her. She looked down and realized that he was asleep.

"Crap."

She used a spell on him, similar to the one he'd used on Blaise the night before, and began moving him up to the boy's dorms. She hoped that no one was awake. Except maybe Blaise.

She got upstairs and put Draco to bed, after she took her comforter back.

She went quickly and quietly back down the stairs. Stephanie heaved a huge sigh after she made it to the bottom. Yawning, she went to her own room. She lazily dug around in her trunk for her pajamas. She changed and flopped on her bed, quickly falling into a deep sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

Ch.6

Draco and Blaise waited in the common room and watched as every girl exited the dorm. Everyone except Stephanie.

"Why does she always have to be fashionably late?", Blaise said sounding quite overly dramatic.

"Uh...I don't know. Why are you asking me? Come one Blaise."

"Oh? Playing fetch again are we?"

"I suppose that's one way to look at it."

"Oh goody. I just love playing fetch.", Blaise said sarcastically.

The closer they got to the dorm, the louder a noise became. When they opened the door, they found it coming from a battery powered stereo. They looked on amused at Stephanie as she danced around on her bed while singing into her hairbrush. The tie, that she damned to hell, was tied into a bow around her neck.

"Pour some sugar on me! Ohhhh, In the name of love! Pour some sugar on me! Come on fire me up! Pour your sugar on me! I can't get enough!", she sang into the 'microphone'.

"Who is this? I don't believe I've heard them before."

"Of course you haven't. They're a muggle band."

"Well how come you've heard of them?"

"I've been Stephie's friend since child hood. She loves muggle bands. Well, certain ones."

"What's this one?"

"Def Leppard."

"Why would she want to listen to deaf leopards?"

Stephanie had been listening to the two bicker while she had been singing and she started laughing at Draco's remark.

"What? What's so funny?"

"D-E-F L-E-P-P-A-R-D. Not D-E-A-F L-E-O-P-A-R-D."

Draco blushed at his folly. Stephanie collapsed onto her bed in laughter.

"I'm sorry Draco! I don't mean to laugh at you. It's just that-that you were so serious about it. I'm s-sorry.", she managed to squeeze out before going into another fit of giggles. Draco looked to Blaise for a little support and found none. He was hiding his face behind a random book that he'd found and, although Draco couldn't see his grin, he could see Blaise's body shaking with laughter.

"I'm leaving.", Draco managed to mumble.

"Stop! I'm sorry Draco.", Stephanie said as got up from her bed and wrapped her arms around him, brush still in hand. With the hand that held the brush and wasn't wrapped around Draco's shoulders she began singing, "I never meant to hurt you! I never meant to make you cry!"

"But I'm not crying!"

"Oh, don't ruin the moment!", Blaise said and started laughing into his fist. He had been laughing so hard that tears were streaking their way down his face and his cheeks were tinted pink.

"Breath Blaise, darling, breath!"

"I'm trying!"

"Let's go before we miss breakfast."

When they arrived at the entrance to the great hall Pansy was waiting for them. When Stephanie went by Pansy she was tripped and probably would have landed on her face if it weren't for Draco and Blaise catching her. The group of girls that always followed Pansy around giggled.

Up at the teachers table, Severus spoke to Sanya, "I would have at least expected your niece to do something about that."

"Me too. How disappointing."

Sanya watched as one of the large doors to the entrance hall suddenly slammed shut in Pansy's face, knocking her on her ass.

"Yes!"

"Mrs. Romaine!"

"Oh, sorry Minerva.", Sanya said sheepishly. She glanced over at Severus and saw the corner of his mouth go up in a slight smile.

"Shut up Severus."

Luckily for Stephanie, no one could prove that it was her and not some freak wind. When they sat down, Stephanie said quietly, so that only Blaise and Draco could hear her, "Oh how I lurve wand-less magic! Ha!" Stephanie giggled when she heard some first year say "That was neeeeaaaat."

"Does anyone else know that you can do wand-less magic?", Draco decided to ask Stephanie.

"Other than you and Blaise, just myself and aunt Sanya. And I don't believe she will tell anyone.", Stephanie looked up at the teachers table and locked eyes with Sanya. Sanya raised her goblet in a toast to her and winked. "Check that. I know she's not."

"I'm dreading classes today."

"Really Severus? You could have fooled me. Normally you're such a wonderful ball of joy."

"...."

"Why do you feel particularly malicious towards the 'dunderheads', as you so call them, today?"

"Well, ever since the day before yesterday, they have all been nothing but a bunch of mischief causing...mischief causing...."

"Dunderheads?"

"Precisely."

Sanya looked up at the ceiling to gaze at the beautiful clouds when she saw...no, it couldn't be. Maybe her eyes were playing tricks on her.

"Um, Severus? Do you see what I see?"

"Are you talking about the turkey that appears to be floating through the sky?"

"Yes! Thank goodness! I thought I was going mad."

"So did I."

They watched as the crispy golden brown, fried and battered, turkey descended from the sky and plummeted into a large bowl of pumpkin juice, splattering all over some unfortunate first year Slytherins.

"Hmmm. When did you say everyone began playing pranks?"

"The day before yesterday I believe."

"Maybe I shouldn't have told them about the Marauders."

Snape spluttered into his pumpkin juice. "You did what?!"

"Well the classes wanted an explanation as to why I thought they could handle something so I told them about the Marauders."

"May Merlin have mercy."

"Heh. I dunno, this might be fun."

"Fun? Fun?! You call watching turkeys fly around and plop into juice fun?"

"Erm, maybe?"

"Twisted woman."

"Sadistic bastard."

"Mrs. Romaine!"

"I'm sorry Minerva! You know how Severus is!"

"Oh for heaven's sake, stop teasing the poor woman."

"I was not teasing her!", Snape said, defensively.

When Minerva turned away, Sanya stuck her tongue out at Snape.

"Child."

"Butt monkey."

"Insufferable-What?"

"That's right. You heard me. You're a butt monkey. And what, pray-tell, were you going to call me?"

"An insufferable hag!"

Sanya gasped. "Well I never.", she stood up and threw a muffin at him as she left.

"Ugh.", Snape said and looked at Minerva to say something to Sanya.

"Serves you right."

"Women!", he said as he threw his arms up in the air and left.

Stephanie was sitting with her partner in Tranfigurations, trying her best to pull off a spell under the suspicious gaze.

"Gah! Would you quit giving me that look?! It's freaking me out!"

"...you mean you're not going to hex, jinx or make a snarky remark towards me?"

"No. Not unless you were going to hex, jinx or make a snarky remark towards me."

"Oh. I just assumed since you were a Slytherin."

"Sheesh! What is it with everyone and this 'All Slytherins are dark and evil!' thing? Not all of us are, you know."

"Sorry. Let me properly introduce myself."

The scarlet haired girl offered her hand to shake. Stephanie took it.

"The names Angelica Reese. You can call me Angel."

"I'm Stephanie Romaine. Steph is good enough."

"Alright then. Let's work on this project correctly now."

"But of course."

A little while later, "Um, why does our tiny hippo look like a woolly mammoth?"

"Wait...hippo? I thought we were still making a cat."

" I think we found our problem then."

Stephanie managed to get out a sorry before snickering.

Stephanie seemed to be making all sorts of new friends. In every class they had to have partners and she agreed to let Draco and Blaise be partners. In herbology she was partnered with a dark blond hufflepuff.

"You know, you look like an anime character.", Stephanie said to her partner.

"You know what anime is?!"

"Yeah! I'm practically obsessed with it. Too bad it's mainly a muggle thing."

"I know!"

They chatted while they dissected their plant. Stephanie found out the girls name was Rena.

In Defense Against the Dark Arts Stephanie was partners with Draco and Blaise was partners with Angel.

"Oh! Dashing!"

Sanya was in awe over Stephanie and Draco's 'vicious animal'. Their task was to cast a glamour on a docile looking creature to make it look fearsome. Something that would ward off someone unknowing of the spell. Stephanie and Draco had a fierce three headed dragon. If it was large it definitely would have been something to fear. As it were, the classroom wouldn't fit it at a large size, along with everyone else's creatures. So it reigned in terror at one foot three inches tall and thrashed about. If anyone were to touch it they would either feel air or the soft furry coat of the mouse that was once visible.

Stephanie practically came skipping into the potions classroom at the end of the day. She let Blaise and Draco be partners once more. Stephanie worked on her potion with a dark looking Ravenclaw. The girl had long black hair with red and maroon streaks and smokey gray eyes.

"Hi. My names Stephanie Romaine and I will be working with you today."

"Jasmine Black. Most everyone calls me Jazz."

"Okay then Jazz, let's get started."

Stephanie talked animatedly to Draco and Blaise on the way to their common room.

"I'm so happy. I made three new friends today."

"What houses?"

"Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, and hufflepuff."

"Wow. You're a real mover and a shaker."

"Yup. That's me. Oh! I almost forgot. I gotta go chat with aunt Sanya again. I'll meet up with you guys later."

"Okay Stephie."

"See ya Steph."

"Un-huh. Bye guys."

She walked all the way back towards the potions area and then down the hall, up the ladder and the stairs to her aunt's room.

"Hello aunt Sanya. How was your day."

"I got called an insufferable hag. But other than that my days been peachy. ", she said with a snort.

"Who would call you that?"

"The dark sadistic bastard butt monkey, that's who."

"Uh....yeah. Of course."

"Severus."

"Oh. Right. Obviously he's the designated dark sadistic bastard butt monkey."

"Language."

"Sorry."

"...tea?!"

"EEK! Um. No that-that's quite alright. I-uh think I'll be going."

Stephanie made her way to the common room. She walked in on a weird conversation.

"I love playing with my broomstick but it's just no fun without anyone else to play with.", Blaise said trying to make a point.

"I play with my broomstick alone all the time. And I enjoy it.", Draco said, arguably.

"Uhhh...are you guys being literal or making sexual connotations?"

There was an awkward moment of silence as the two guys thought back to what they had said in sexual terms and busted out laughing. Draco spoke up, "Oh yeah Stephanie. I play with my broomstick all the time! Would you like to watch me sometime?"

"And everyone knows that I'm a huge exhibitionist and play with my broomstick in large groups of people."

Bye this point Stephanie was blushing crimson.

"Oh my gah! Shut up!", she said, emphasizing her point bye tossing a pillow at them.

Blaise snorted and added another comment, "Who's broomstick would you like in your broom shed?"

"Ack! Shut up! Shutupshutupshutup!!!!", she said as she buried her face in the arm of the sofa.

"Always remember to wax your broomstick before engaging in play."

"I'm gone!", she said as she got up and darted for the dorm.

"Great Blaise, now you've chased off the girl."

Stephanie passed a girl that asked her if she was okay because she looked like she had a fever. To which Stephanie replied "No, It's just that my two closest friends are perverts."

"Oh."

Stephanie took a quick shower and got into her white pajamas. She ran a brush through her silky white hair and laid down under the covers.

There were no visions of sugar plums in her dream. Instead she dreamed about a certain guy she liked. And they were 'flying'.

Sometime during the night Stephanie sat up sharply. 'What the hell was that?! Eek. It's all their faults. Bloody broomsticks' She laid back down and went back to sleep. But only after she drank the few drops of liquid from one of the tiny vials around her neck. She didn't want to have any more of those dreams and a bit of dreamless sleep potion was just the cure for that.


	7. Chapter 7

Ch.7

"It's finally Friday!", Sanya said as she sat down at the teachers table in the sunlit great hall.

"Must you always be so chipper? And who's wedding are you going to?", Snape said drearily dressed in his usual black clothing.

"I'm not always chipper, and just because I'm wearing white does _not_ mean I'm going to a wedding.", Sanya said indignantly. She was wearing a blinding white long dress that came up in a turtle neck type fashion around her neck. Her shoes matched the color of her dress and had ribbons that wrapped around her legs. Her black slick hair was pulled into a bun, her bangs the same as always. The only thing of a particular color on her was a red crystal that hung from her necklace. Not including her brown chocolate eyes. "I'm wearing white because today is Friday."

"So?"

"Fridays are white days and Mondays are black days. Anything in-between the two is just whatever I feel like wearing."

"...why?"

"Because Fridays are lovely and Mondays suck. And what's with all the questions? You're like a bloody two year old."

"And you're like a hag. Point being?"

"I hate you."

"Believe me, it's mutual."

"Ass."

"For crying out loud! Am I going to have to separate you two?"

Both Snape and Sanya gave out a mumbled 'no Minerva'.

Stephanie giggled as she watched her aunt and the potions professor bicker. Her giggling turned into laughter as she saw a bright yellow ring appear above her aunts head.

Sanya reached up to smooth her hand over her hair and felt warmth pulsing from something. She grabbed it and pulled it down to look at it. It looked like...a halo. Sanya tilted her head and pondered over the curious glowing object. As soon as she let it go it shot back into it's original position atop her head. She blinked and shrugged before leaving. Meanwhile the Weasley twins were laughing at their tiny dose of mischief that was just beginning for the day.

Stephanie resumed eating after her little laughing fit. In a moment of pure reflex her hand sprung up from the direction in which she heard an all too familiar sound.

"Bloody hell! You caught a snitch!", Blaise said in disbelief.

Stephanie looked at her hand and, sure enough, there was the tiny gold fluttering snitch in the palm of her hand. She glanced up just in time to see the twins exiting and waving to her.

She just sat and blinked for a few moments before saying, "Where'd they get a snitch?"

At the end of Transfigurations Stephanie told Blaise and Draco to go ahead to potions that she had to ask McGonagall about something.

She walked to McGonagall and showed her papers with her plans on it.

"Hmmm. I don't know what I can do about this. All I can say is that you must make a petition and have at least 75% of the student body sign it. If you don't get enough signatures than I'm afraid that it can't be done."

"Okay. And what about this?", she handed another piece of parchment to McGonagall.

"Well, if your first proposal pulls through, than I don't see why there should be a problem. You do understand that the other teams will have to be able to participate too, don't you?"

"Of course! That's the whole point!"

"Okay then Miss Romaine. If you get all that is required than it should all work out nicely."

"Thanks professor."

"You're welcome Miss Romaine."

Stephanie was in potions working, by herself, and was getting ready to add the next ingredient. She picked up the glass jar labeled 'Powdered Fairy Wings' and noticed that it was not powdered fairy wings, but powdered beetle wings.

She got up from her table and walked over to professor Snape.

"Excuse me sir, but your jar is mislabeled."

"Oh really? Are you implying that you can identify things better than I can?"

"Um, no sir, but fairy wings are white....and these are black."

"Let me see that.", he said as he snatched the jar out of her hands.

He inspected it for a moment before he pulled out his wand and mumbled _'infinite incantatum'_. The words on the label disappeared and the words 'Powdered Beetle Wings' appeared.

"It appears, Miss Romaine, that some idiot tried to sabotage your potion."

"Indeed it does professor."

"You wouldn't happen to know who is responsible, would you?"

Stephanie looked at Pansy and smirked.

"Yeah."

"Who is it then?"

"...give me a few minutes and I'll come back and tell you. If you don't figure it out, that is."

"What are you up to?"

"Nothing." Her eyes were sparkling with mischief.

Snape said no more and simply waited. Because he knew from a lot of experience, that anytime any student from his house said 'nothing' with the 'hippogriff who ate the weasel' face, it _never_ meant nothing.

Stephanie went back to her seat, picked up her bag and began rummaging through it. She pulled out jars of sacre rouge leaves and another jar containing hippogriff claws. Snape smirked, knowing full well what she was doing, he wasn't going to do anything to stop it either. He looked back down at his papers like he didn't expect anything that was going to happen.

Stephanie got out three leaves and three claws. When Pansy left her table to go do something Stephanie used wand less magic and dropped the leaves and claws into Pansy's cauldron. She began counting down the seconds and watched as Pansy sat back down at her cauldron. _'13...12...11...10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...' _Stephanie raised both her hands and concentrated on the area around Pansy putting up a shield just as the violently red substance in Pansy's cauldron erupted in a fountain. The shield kept it from splattering all over the dungeon classroom. When the red liquid stopped shooting up the class could see what had become of Pansy. She was now completely red.

Stephanie turned back to her potion and began finishing it up.

"Miss Romaine, I will not tolerate such things in my classroom. You will be serving detention with me this afternoon, and 15 points from Slytherin."

"Yes professor."

Sanya was sitting down and relaxing while eating dinner in the great hall when she was startled by Snape.

"Who was the potions professor at Beauxbatons?", Snape said to Sanya.

"Why do you ask, Severus?"

"Because your niece is the best student in my class."

"You know, I could probably have her come over here, actually. She would probably only be free during sixth period."

"That would be too much trouble."

"Nonsense."

"Oh. When would she be able to come?"

"Probably Monday."

"Sixth period you say? That's the class that your niece is in. She'll probably be quite pleased to see her prized student again."

"But of course.", Sanya said with a small smile as she took a sip from her glass.

"...why is there a halo on your head?", Snape said after a pause.

"I do not know. It hasn't left since breakfast. I believe it has something to do with the Weasley twins."  
"Of course it does. Everything does.", he said as he rolled his eyes.

Stephanie stood up on her chair at her place of Slytherin table.

"Sonorus. EXCUSE ME EVERYONE, IF I COULD HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE. I HAVE A PETITION HERE THAT I NEED AT LEAST 75% OF THE STUDENT BODY TO SIGN. I JUST THOUGHT IT WOULD BE A REALLY COOL IDEA TO HAVE THE QUIDDITCH GAMES AT NIGHT. I'LL BE POSTING THIS SHEET UP ON THE WALL NEAR THE DOOR IF YOU WANT TO SIGN IT. THAT IS ALL. THANK YOU."

The hall erupted into a caucus of speech when she finished. Most of it sounded excited. Stephanie stuck the sheet to the wall as she, Blaise and Draco exited the hall.

On the way to the commons Stephanie remembered that she had detention.

"Crap. I guess I might see you guys later, I have to go to detention."

"Oh yeah. Well, see ya Stephie."

"Bye Steph."

"Bye guys."

Stephanie walked slowly to the potions classroom.

When she arrived her aunt was in the classroom standing with her hands on her hips beside of Snape who had his arms crossed. Stephanie gulped. Normally she didn't find her aunt intimidating, but for some reason she was the epitome of intimidating at that moment. It might have possibly been because she was standing beside of the equally intimidating potions professor. Stephanie could feel goose-bumps raising up on her pale flesh and the hair standing up on the back of her neck as her aunt approached.

Sanya's posture was straight and yet loose. Her brown eyes blank and unreadable. Her halo pulsed dully in the dim light, the charm that created it wavering. As she got to Stephanie, Stephanie was almost to the point of shaking. Sanya reached her hands up and set them on Stephanie's shoulders. Then she immediately brightened her features and her smooth, red lipsticked, lips pulled into a dazzling smile as she tilted her head.

"I'm so proud of you!"

"Merlin! Don't do that to me! I thought you were pissed off at me!"

"Nope."

"What are you doing here though? I'm supposed to be having detention."

"You are. With me. Although...I'm not exactly sure that I would call it detention, more like milk and cookies.", she said with a wink, "Join me in my room in a few minutes. 'til then I suspect that you will answer any questions that Severeus may have for you, truthfully. Ta-ta!"

"Um...what questions professor?"

"I'm curious...did you know that substituting beetle wings for fairy wings would-"

"-do absolutely nothing and just create a dud of a potion that would be completely useless? Yes, I did. And do, obviously.", Stephanie said as she cut him off.

"Ah. So you did know and yet you still sabotaged her potion?"

"Yes. Because I am sure that Pansy actually planned on the potion blowing up in my face or something so I got her back. Only instead of mine turning out to be a dud, I turned her red."

"How truly Slytherin of you."

"Thank you professor."

"You earned it. You also earned 25 points to Slytherin for a 'good' display of character and for having the knowledge of knowing how hippogriff claws react in a healing potion."

To say that Stephanie was stunned was an understatement. Her mouth hung open in a most uncouth manner and she just stood there.

"That is all miss. Romaine. Now I do believe that you must meet with professor Romaine for detention."

"Yeah.", Stephanie said still in her daze. She turned around and walked into the side of the door. "Door.", she said right as she walked into it. She quickly pushed the offending door aside and went to her aunts room.

Draco woke up the next morning with the sun shining in his eyes. '_Ugh. What the hell are my bed hangings doing open?'_ He sat up and rubbed his eyes. He blinked and then rubbed his eyes once more.

"Stephanie?"

"'ey Drake."

"Why you wearing a top hat?"

"You sound a little...groggy."

"That's because I just woke up."

"Right. And about the top hat, I came up here and got Blaise up and he put it on me before he went to get in the shower. He should be out soon."

"A HUNKA HUNKA BURNIN' LOVE!"

"See? I told you."

Blaise walked over to the two while he ruffled his hair with a white towel. Stephanie thought she was gonna drool. It didn't matter if Blaise was her best friend or not, he was H-O-T, sexy!...huh? Stephanie shook her head.

Water droplets lay across his golden skin. His black hair was still wet and dripping. The water dripping from his hair glided down his chiseled abs.

"Steph?"

"Yeah Drake?"

"Why are you wearing muggle clothing?"

Stephanie looked down at her long sleeved, white, button up shirt, and her black, red and white plaid mini skirt, and black high-heeled shoes.

"Because they look cool and I want to."

"Oh...uh...mkay. Hmmm..."

"What?"

"I gotta pee.", Draco managed to slur out.

Stephanie giggled at the announcement and Blaise replied with a sarcastic 'thank you, thank you very much'. Draco stood up from his bed in his black boxers and walked over to his trunk to dig out his clothes for the day. Stephanie could hardly contain herself. '_hot hot hot hot. shirtless hot. boxers._' Blaise took a hold of the back of Stephanie's shirt to keep her from following Draco to the bathroom by accident. She let out a whimper whenever the door shut off her view.

"Noooo! I don't _wanna_!"

"Uh...you don't wanna what?"

"Stay here. I wanna go."

"Ha. So you want to go see him change? You do realize that that would involve seeing his broomstick, don't you?"

"I don't care! SHOW ME THE BROOMSTICK!!"

Blaise stared open mouthed at her.

"Okay, maybe not. Just kidding."

Blaise blinked at her.

"Just don't stand there! Say something!"

Blaise held up his finger in a 'wait' gesture. He turned around so that his back was to Stephanie. And then he bent over and pulled he blue jeans down to bear his golden bum.

"OH MY SLYTHERIN!", Stephanie yelled before she turned around and put her hands on the sides of her blushing face. Stephanie heard Draco come out of the bathroom so she felt like giving him a warning.

"ADVERT THINE EYES!"

"Why? It's not like it's anything I haven't seen before. He does that all the time. I think he gets a kick out of seeing people's reactions."

Stephanie heard a creak and turned around, thinking that Blaise was trying to scamper off before she would get the chance to fuss at him. In hind sight that might have been a bad idea. For at the moment Stephanie was ass to face with Blaise. He had stood up on a trunk and now his ass was level with Stephanie's face. She stood there in shock, non-moving, with her eyes wide open.

She rigidly maneuvered herself around.

"Are you okay Steph?", Draco asked his shocked friend.

She snickered before she went into a bout of full on laughter.

"BUNS OF STEEL!", she said as she squeezed his right cheek.

"Yow! Bloody hell!", Blaise exclaimed as he quickly pulled his pants up.

"Yes! I win!"

"You win _what_?", he said as he rubbed his sore bum.

"I win...I win...yeah okay, I don't know what I win, but whatever it is, I won it."

"You two are so weird.", Draco barely managed to say through his laughter.

Stephanie and Blaise looked at each other before they let a smirk grace their features.

"Of course we are dahling.", Stephanie said in a pompous voice as she stood besides Blaise and leaned back against him.

"For together, we are Blaise and Stephanie. You know what that means, don't you Draco?"

"Uh...no.", Draco said with his head tilted in a puzzled manner.

"We are the grand example of BS."

"Du dup-"

"-ching!"

"...I'm leaving now."

It was a gorgeous Sunday afternoon on the grounds of Hogwarts. Blaise, Stephanie and Draco were laying on their backs in the grass by the black lake. They would get splashed every now and then when one of the giant squids tentacles would plop into the lake. The water a nice welcome for whenever they would get a bit too warm in the brilliant rays of the sun.

"Look! That one looks like a centaur!", Stephanie said pointing up to the white fluffy cloud.

"I see a dragon over that way.", Blaise said as he pointed over to his left.

"Hey! That one looks like your aunt!"

"How do you get that?"

"Well....it just does."

"Dorko.", Stephanie giggled.

"That's not funny.", Draco said with a pout.

Blaise made a suffering noise.

"It's hot! I'm going for a swim."

"In your clothes? Are you daft?"

"I'll have you know that I'm _not_ going in my clothes."

"Oh..."

"I'm swimming nude."

"_What?! No, _you are _not!_"

"Yes I am. Care to swim too Draco?"

"No. I don't feel like laughing at shriveled parts today, or getting molested by the squid for that matter."

"Suit yourself."

"I will. And I'll laugh as you un-suit yours."

"And I will cover my eyes until you're in the water because I have no desire whatsoever to see your broomstick and bludgers.", Stephanie said with her eyes already closed.

"Bludgers? Personally I like to refer to them as quaffles because they don't exactly beat people about, more likely a tossing motion type thing. Although-"

"_No_. No more. Silence. Be gone with you! Into the lake!"

"Okay okay, yeesh. First you're all like, 'Noooo! My virgin eyes can't take the sight of your masculinity' and now you're like, 'Get naked and into the lake, bitch!'"

"That is _not_ what I sound like!"

"So maybe it's a tad bit twisted version of what you said. But it's what you said all the same."

"....I would never call you a bitch though."

"You have before."

"I was joking then so it doesn't matter. Besides, you called me a ho."

"I was joking too. So there we go. Now, if you'll excuse me, it's naked time!", Blaise said as he began running towards the lake and taking his clothes off.

"Steph...do you ever feel weird knowing that Blaise is your best friend?"

"All the time."

"Me too."

Both of them laughed together and started talking about some of their more humorous times.

"One time when Blaise and I were little kids we were wrestling around and we ended up falling over into one of the fountains at the manor. Well, the fountain had blue dye in it to make it look more fetching. Now don't get me wrong, it works wonderfully in a fountain, but tropical ocean blue doesn't quite suit a human."

"No! You're kidding me!"

"Afraid not. My hair and skin didn't turn back for about 2 weeks. I think it was enchanted dye or something. But Blaise, he was fine! The prat. I think that was the only time I was actually jealous of his dark hair and skin."

Stephanie giggled. "He got his though. Because whenever we were kids, he ticked me off really bad one time because he wouldn't give me back my shoes. So I did the only logical thing that a 9 year old could do. I turned him hot pink from head to toe."

"I remember that! He came over to the manor looking like that! My mother, father, and I laughed ourselves silly. When my mother asked him what happened he said, 'Some stupid, evil, retched girl did this to me.'. And mother, knowing Blaise better than that, asked him what he did to the girl to deserve it. He said that he took her tiny red shoe. After that we all started laughing again. My father tried to undo the spell, but he just got brighter!"

"Alas, even then I was a clever spell caster. I was born a slytherin and I will die a slytherin."

A short while later the warm and serene weather had put Stephanie to sleep. Blaise came back to them, fully clothed. He looked back and forth from the dozing Stephanie, to Draco who was watching her sleep.

"I have some homework to finish. I'm gonna go back to the commons."

"I have some homework too."

"Come on then."

"What about Stephanie?"

"We leave her here. You can go and get your owl to give her a message of where we are."

"Oh. Okay."

"Great. Now that that is settled, let's go, ho!"

"Call me a ho, will you?"

"At least I didn't call you my bitch."

"Please, you would be _my_ bitch."

"Hm, I guess I could squash my dignity enough to bend over and let you take me, making me passionately cry out with sobbing please of 'Harder, oh baby! Faster! Oh! Oh god! Yes! I'm gonna-!"

"Blaise! The hell man?"

"Sorry, got caught up in the moment. You know you like it."

"Yeah, I'd hit that."

"…"

"…alas, the joys of sun-baked delirium."

By the time Stephanie woke up the sun was setting. Her hand, that she had resting limply by her head, held a single red rose. She blinked and sat up. She heard a soft noise. An eagle owl came over to her and held out it's leg with a small piece of parchment attached to it. She took it off and read it.

_Didn't want to wake you. In the commons._

_~Draco_

Stephanie stood up and spoke to the eagle owl. "I guess it's just you and me then. Come on.", she held her arm out and the eagle owl flew up and landed on it.

She chatted to the bird about anything that crossed her mind.

"I just realized something.", she said as she stopped in the hallway, "I'm talking to you and you probably can't even understand me. If someone were to see me now they might think of me as being quite daft.". The owl gave a soft screech. "Then again, maybe not."

'_scorpius'_

Stephanie walked in to Draco and Blaise arguing over their homework.

"I'm telling you, it's harder to transfigure something non-living into something living."

"And I'm telling you it's the other way around. Ah! Stephie, you're here. Tell Draco that I'm right."

"I'd love to."

"Ha!"

"But I can't do that because that would be lying."

"What?!"

"It takes more to transfigure something non-living into something living because you have to put more magic into it in order to act as a life force. Think of it this way. It's very easy to kill something, but bloody near impossible to bring it back."

"Some best friend you are."

"It's not my fault that you don't pay attention during class."

Blaise opened his mouth and closed it. "Oh sure. Throw that in my face."

"I did."

On Monday morning, Sanya came drifting into the great hall. True to her word, she was wearing black. A long black dress, with long black sleeves, black shoes. Her black hair down, with two front pieces braided and pulled back into a clip. Her lips a deep crimson.

"It's the queen of the dead herself."

"I will stab you with my fork if you don't leave me alone right now. We can bicker later today when I'm not feeling moody."

Snape gave her a weird look.

Later during the day Sanya had perked up and was now sporting a pair of sunglasses in her class. When someone asked her why she simply said, because the sunlight is bright and hurts my eyes. The students thought this was reasonable and wished that they had sunglasses themselves.

During the sixth class of the day, Snape was waiting anxiously for the Beaxbatans potions mistress to show up. Finally a woman walked through the door.

"Yeesh. It's dark as a dungeon in here."

"Um, aunt Sanya, that's because it _is_ a dungeon."

"Oh. Right.", she said as she removed her sunglasses.

"It's_ you_!", Snape said with slightly wide eyes.

"Ah, yes. Allow me to introduce myself. Sanya Romaine, potions mistress and ex-potions professor of Beauxbatons, at your service."


	8. Chapter 8

Ch.8

"_You_ are the one who taught Stephanie?!"

"The one and only. Now," she said walking to the front and center of the class "is there anything that you need help with?"

She watched in amusement as all of the hands shot into the air.

"Looks like I have my work cut out for me."

Sanya went over to the first student in order.

"I'm following the directions but it's not working."

"Do you have a parchment and quill?"

"Yeah."

"Lemme see it."

She took the quill and began writing down some things.

"In potion making, nothing is set in stone. Try those tips and you should do fine."

"But....the book-"

"Don't rely souly on one book. I've seen hundreds of different measures for making that potion. And guess what?"

"What?"

"They all worked. Now, I must be moving on."

About a dozen students later she came by Neville.

"Oh honey, you got a...no! Don't add that! Put the caterpillar down, and nobody gets blown up."

He feebly and shakily set it down. Sanya gave a sigh of relief.

"mm. Sorry but I'm afraid that there's no way to fix it. You'll have to start over from scratch. Although, you made a very nice acid for weeds.", she cleared out his cauldron.

"Okay. First off, one of the ways to get what you got is to add the ingredients at the wrong time or wrong order. So therefore the advice I can give you, is to relax." She leaned in and whispered, "Even with your craptacular potions professor in the room."

He smiled at her and started over.

Finally Sanya had made her way to the last student, passing Stephanie on her way by.

"I wouldn't put that in if I were you."

"Why not?"

"Trust me. Just don't."

"So what do you need help with Blaise?"

"I dropped my ring in with my potion while I was trying to put some of it in a vile."

"Has it been off the burner for a while now?"

"Yeah."

Sanya looked around and then put her hand in the poisonous substance and pulled out the ring. She used a cleaning spell on it before handing it back to Blaise.

"Here you go."

He looked at her like she was crazy.

"You just stuck your hand in poison."

"Yes. And if I happen to have a paper-cut or something on my hand I will faint in about...3 seconds."

The seconds passed and Sanya was still standing. She quickly cleaned her hands of the toxic substance.

"EWWW. Gross."

"I told you not to put that in."

Stephanie had been working on something of her own, having finished the assignment long ago.

"But why'd it do that?"

"You do know that most of those ingredients in there, when combined with raven claws, tend to be what stink bombs are made of? Of course you don't. Or you would have _listened_ to me."

Sanya walked over to her niece and asked her to pull out some ingredients. She immediately went to work and began quickly measuring things with her hands and estimating. When she added a rose petal, red smoke came up in the shape of a butterfly. A sweet, heavenly smell quickly eradicated the earlier gag inducing one.

"Ah. Much better."

About that time the dismissal bell rang and the students piled out of the classroom.

"They all actually completed the assignment, even Longbottom. I'm impressed."

"All they needed was a little advice. And help."

"I can help them. They are all welcome to ask me questions."

"Yeah. But that's the thing. They don't like you. You scare them."

"Thank you. I'm flattered."

"I wish I would have saved some of Stephanie's screwed up potion. I'd just love to throw some on you right now.", she said as she left the classroom.

Draco stopped part way to the dorms. "Oh, I almost forgot, congratulations."

"Thanks? What are you congratulating me for?"

"Your petition for night quidditch games was approved."

"Really?! Righteous!", she exclaimed throwing her fist into the air.

"Draaaaaay!", a whiny nasally voice bellowed.

Draco brought his hand up and pinched the bridge of his nose. He muttered something under his breath that Stephanie didn't quite catch.

"DRAAAAAAY!"

"For god's sake, COMING!"

Stephanie raised an eyebrow and couldn't help but think that if that was what relationships were about, she was glad she was single.


	9. Chapter 9

Ch.9

Stephanie changed her mind. She was not glad that she was single, for now she would be going to the upcoming ball completely, and utterly, alone. But she was not going to let this get her down. Nope. She was going to stay completely happy throughout the whole thing and she would be perfectly content. Perfectly…

"Stephanie…"

"Hm?"

"Can you stop sighing every two minutes?"

"Sorry Blaise.", she took in a breath and-

"Don't you do it!"

She held her breath for a moment, and then came the inevitable.

"Stephaniiiiieeee!"

Stephanie dressed in her white rope-like strapped gown. The gown flowed down to her feet and draped under the bust-line. Her bronze sandals clapped on the stone floor as she made her way to the ball.

Upon arriving she wondered around the crowd of students before coming across her aunt, whom was sitting in a corner in a poison green halter style dress with black accents and side-arm straps, her ebony hair pulled back and held up with chopsticks. After having their standard conversation, Stephanie decided to go outside so as not to subject herself to the masses of lovey-dovey teens swooning on the dance-floor.

Stephanie walked down to the end of the stairs leading up to the entrance of the school and sat down at the end of the stone banister. Her eyes and glossed lips gently shone in the light as she lightly swung her feet to the music that she could hear filtering out from the hall.

"So what's a girl like you doing sitting out here all by her lonesome?", a smooth voice drawled that Stephanie recognized very well.

"Sitting, listening to music, feeling lonely and insecure, ya know, the normal girl stuff. How about you? Shouldn't you be dancing with flowerpot?"

"Ha, good one. But no, I pawned her off on some poor sixth year.", he said with a vague hand motion.

He walked up and sat beside her.

"Seriously though, I find it hard to believe that you're here alone."

"Do you see anyone else here?"

"True."

"Honestly, is it really that surprising?"

"Yes! It is! You're the epitome of the human species!"

"Huh? What the hoot does that mean?"

"Blonde-haired, Blue-eyed and…uh…you look nice.", he finished off with a small cough.

Stephanie giggled at the gesture.

Draco smoothly hopped down and turned around to face Stephanie.

"Dance with me."

"Huh?"

"Tu danses avec moi?"

"Oh? Parlez vous Francais?"

"Oui, un petit…so are you going to dance with me or not?", he said with a small smirk.

"Sure, why not.", she said smiling as she slid down and took his hand.

The dance started out slow, then as the pace of the song playing picked up, as did the pace of the dance. The long languid movements becoming faster and shorter, their laughter bubbled over the sound of the crickets chirping. Towards the end of the song, as the music decrescendo'd, the dancing once again flowed down into the smooth glides of before.


	10. Chapter 10

Ch.10

Some odd weeks later, November 5, Stephanie woke up feeling strange. She thought it as retched because it was her sixteenth birthday and she just wanted to feel normal. Well, as normal as a witch can feel.

She slowly walked down to the common room. She felt so disoriented.

Much to Blaise and Draco's protest, Stephanie was stumbling drowsily to Transfigurations. Blaise and Draco watching her intently in case she were to faint or trip on the way to the classroom.

Stephanie was thinking that it would be much easier to be able to transfigure her strand of hair into a daisy, without having to use a wand, as she grudgingly was reaching for hers. Which was why she was so shocked, when she hadn't even so much as touched her wand, that it changed. 'Bloody hell.' Stephanie glanced around nervously. Luckily everyone was so submersed into their own spell casting that they didn't notice her bit of strong wandless magic.

During herbology Stephanie had developed a rather large headache. 'Why can't the woman be quiet? She just keeps going on and on and ON about these stupid plants.' A couple seconds later Stephanie was happy to realize that the professor had finally stopped talking. Although, it was rather abrupt. She looked up to see her professors mouth moving frantically, without any sound. At first she thought she had gone deaf, but then the other students started babbling to each other. 'Shit. What the hell is going on?' One of the other students set their professor right again with a counter spell.

In fifth period Stephanie couldn't take it anymore. By now she had a splitting headache and a sharp burning feeling all over and a fever on top of that. To say that she felt unpleasant was a large understatement.

When the class ended, Draco picked Stephanie up in his arms and Blaise carried all their books while he walked hurriedly beside them. They headed to Sanya's room, where they just barely made it to her before she left to go the potions classroom, as she did everyday during her free period.

"What's wrong with her?!"

"She's really ill."

"Follow me."

They followed her and Draco lay Stephanie down on the bed as Sanya instructed.

"Leave this to me. You two should be getting to your classes."

"But-"

"No buts. Leave this instant, I won't have you two catching this."

The two left worried for their best friend.

When the door closed, Sanya looked down at her suffering niece.

"I was afraid that this day would come. Stay strong Sweetie, it's going to be a rough ride."

Sanya sighed and went to get some blankets, a bowl of water, and a wet cloth.


	11. Chapter 11

Ch.11

"I know that woman like the back of my hand! I'm telling you that she's hiding something!"

"And what do you think she's hiding, Blaise? Hm? What, has Steph suddenly died on us and she doesn't think it wise to inform others or mourn for her niece? Or maybe Steph is actually off on vacation! Oh! I know something even better! She must be-"

"Shut up! That's not what I meant. I'm just as worried as you are. And I didn't say that I could explain why professor Romaine is hiding something from us, I just know that she is."

"Oh yes, perfect logic. I can just see how your school papers go. Anti-poison potions work because they're supposed to, or maybe it'd go more like, Anti-poison potions work because they just do. Yeah, real winning essays."

"What the hell is wrong with you?! You never act this way to me! Now all of a sudden you're a downright ass."

Draco looked like he was going to say something cutting but bit it back. He took a breath and slowly exhaled.

"Look, it's been a week and we haven't heard anything about Steph. I'm worried and I don't know how to deal with that. I wasn't raised to worry. Hell, from the time I was born I had things handed to me on a silver platter and fed a bunch of bullocks like 'A Malfoy never gets embarrassed,' or 'A Malfoy never cries,' or my favorite 'A Malfoy never befriends a non-pureblood.' "he said with sarcasm and venom.

There was a long moment of pause between them.

"...apology excepted.", Blaise said, trying to smirk, but instead broke into a goofy grin.

"Idiot."

Blaise embraced Draco into what seemed to be a hug but, what Draco realized a moment too late, was a headlock.

"Don't you worry mate, I'm sure Steph will show up at any moment. And she'll look just as spectacular as ever."

"Yeah. And Blaise, don't you dare do what I think you're thinking of doing."

"Oh I wouldn't even think about what you're thinking that I'm thinking of doing."

"Good. Wait, what?"

"Nothing. But guess what? Ha!", Blaise said as he ruffled Draco's hair.

"ARGH! But you said you wouldn't! My hair!"

"And you trusted a slytherin?"

Draco paused in his struggling's for a moment.

"Hmph. You're right."

Draco wrapped his hands around Blaise's arm that was holding him captive, bent over sharply and threw Blaise to the floor.

"Bloody hell. How did you do that?"

"Karate."

"Oh. Now get over here and help my fat ass up."

"You're not fat.", Draco said as he lifted Blaise up off the floor, "I rather feel like I'm consoling a girl.", he said making an odd expression.

"Hey!...I'm prettier than a girl."

"That's it! You're gay and I know it!"

"I...am not! I'm just incredibly vain!"

"Whatever you want to call it. Hey, I'll see you later."

"Where you going?"

"Quidditch practice."

"See ya mate!"

At about ten o'clock Draco came slogging into the room. It had been raining outside during practice again and the whole experience was dull and painstaking. Without the white haired babe it seemed that their team was a dud. Luckily while she was down they post-poned the Gryffindor vs Slytherin match and it was now being held as the last game of the year. Which sent all the students into an excited frenzy because that match was sure to end the quidditch season with a bang.

Draco's clothes were soaked and dripping on the floor of the common room. His uber blond hair was clinging to his face, no matter how many times he tried to fix that problem it always flopped back in his face.

"Zouch Drake. You look a little soggy.", Stephanie said from her place on the green leather sofa before she took a bite of her cookie.

Draco's head snapped up and he stared at Stephanie.

"You're alive."

"Um...yeah. It's wonderful isn't it?", Stephanie said as if she were talking to a mental person. She looked over at Blaise with a 'Is he okay?' type look. Blaise tried to discretely make a spinning motion beside his head.

"I'm not crazy! I'm...well I was...."

"You were what?", Stephanie said looking up from the notes she was copying that she missed during her absence.

"I was worried...about you.", he said fighting off a blush.

"Aw! How sweet Drakey!", she said with a bright smile that seemed to light up the room. For a moment he saw a blank look pass over Blaise's face. When Stephanie returned to her work Blaise seemed to snap out of his daze.

Draco just stood and looked at Stephanie. He felt impossibly giddy even though he was still cold and wet. But it was okay because Stephanie was back. Draco looked at Stephanie and studied her. Her pale size seven feet peeked out from under her white skirt that draped over her legs that were bent up to her torso, her thighs forming a makeshift table. The pristine white quill that she wrote with moving in smooth delicate strokes. His gaze moved on to her slender hands and white finger nails, and then continued onward. He got flustered when he realized where he was staring. 'Moving on then.'

Stephanie felt goose-bumps on her flesh and had a thrilling feeling. She asked, to no one in particular, "Is someone staring at me?", with her eyes still on her paper.

"I was wondering when you were going to notice. Draco's been staring at you like he has x-ray vision or something. And who knows, maybe he does and he's peeking at your under-things as we speak."

"Oh please!", Draco gave a pause and smirked, "Like I'd stop at the under-things."

"Draco Lucius Malfoy! What a mouth.", Stephanie said faking appallment.

"I know. Isn't it gorgeous?"

"Lil' bit.", she said with a giggle, "And you're also making a puddle. You might want to go change before you catch a cold."

"Like you did?"

Stephanie seemed to tense, "Yeah. L-like I did."

"I'm going to change now."

"Into what? A bat? A wolf? A porn star? Jack Nicholson?"

"No. Clean and dry clothes. Well, after I shower, and who's Jack Nicholson?"

"Muggle actor guy."

"Okay then."

Stephanie woke up feeling drowsy and took one of the many crystals hung around her neck and drank from it. She shuddered harshly as it sent a jolt through her body. 'woo. That's a kicker. I gotta remember to tell aunt Sanya to tone that one down a bit.' She got up and slowly gathered her clothes up to change into while humming.

Stephanie came out fully dressed and dumped her clothes in a hamper. She stood in front of her mirror and tried to decide what to do with her hair. Her mirror spoke to her. 'Looking glamorous as always! What do ya say you put that to die for blonde hair in a French braid?'

"Good idea."

So off Stephanie went to get her French braider.

She knocked on the dorm door. From the noise, everyone was still in there and getting ready for the day. She heard Blaise's voice through the door.

"Draco! Get out of my pants!"

Stephanie giggled.

"Your pants? I thought these were mine."

"No."

Stephanie knocked louder this time. Blaise yelled through the door, "Who is it?"

"It's Stephanie! Is anyone in there naked?"

"Are you naked?"

"Um...no?"

"Then neither are we."

She heard loud laughing behind the door and realized that everyone was listening. She shifted uncomfortably.

"I need my hair braided."

Blaise opened the door and then shook his head, sending water everywhere.

"Ugh! You're like a dog."

"Yeah. We all just got out of the shower."

Before Stephanie could say anything Blaise grabbed her hand and was leading her to the common room. He braided her hair while she wondered if there was some strange orgy going on in the boys showers.

"You have hard leg muscles.", Stephanie said as she bounced on his lap.

"Woah! Watch the bits!"

"Sorry. But I'm not close to that, am I?"

"Close enough, babe."

Stephanie stood up and made sure her black skirt was strait. Draco and Blaise, not to mention a few people walking by, almost had a heart attack when she raised her skirt up. Then they noticed that she had shorts on underneath it. After she fixed her shorts she once again fixed her skirt.

When the three got to the portrait, Draco stopped and motioned at Stephanie.

"Yay! Piggy!", she said as she jumped on Draco's back and rested her arms on his shoulders.

"Hey! I am no pig! Not even close. I'm gorgeous, glamorous, handsome, well mannered,-"

"Arrogant.", Blaise and Stephanie said together.

"So what? You know you like it."

"...piggy.", Stephanie said and placed a kiss on his temple.

Draco felt the heat rush to his face as it turned a bright red.

"I'm telling you Cinnamon works just as good as pepper. And since you have to drink it, it tastes better. See? It's a win-win situation."

"Pardon me for being traditional and, unless I'm mistaken, don't your potions tend to come by the potent side?"

"Yes. But it's not like I can't make them standard. I just have to try when I do it that way because, in case you haven't noticed, I usually don't use any measuring items other that my hands and rough estimations."

"That explains why your gnome poison turned out to be the drought of the dead."

"Eh-heh. That-uh has never happened to me before.", Sanya said in an embarrassed voice, "But you can't say that you've never screwed up a potion before."

"Your right. But I didn't do it in front of my class."

"And you've also never made a potion in front of your class."

"Touche."

At that moment a student threw a chicken leg at Snape. Before it could reach him it turned into a chicken and a large gust of wind blew it away, all in a matter of a few seconds. Snape blinked for a few moments trying to decide what the hell just happened.

"Sanya...did you....?"

"Hm? No idea what you're talking about."

"So you didn't do anything to that chicken."

"What chicken?"

"The one that-oh for heaven's sake! I know you saw it and I know that you had something to do with it."

"Don't be silly. I don't even have my wand out."

"That's why I know that it's you. Do you even have a wand?"

"Of course I do! What witch doesn't?"

"I've never seen you with one....and no human witch I've seen can do all the things you do without using one."

Sanya tensed for a moment. Then she felt a mental push and she slammed her mental wall up.

"It's rude to look into others mind without their permission. I would appreciate it if you wouldn't pry for things that are none of your business."

"My apologies."

Sanya choked on her chicken.

"You apologized? Dear Merlin, the world is going to end!"

Ch.11-3

Sanya exited the potions classroom, her last class of the day, and was making her way outside for some fresh air. She couldn't seem to shake the eerie feeling that she was being watched. The absence of students in the hallways making her even more on edge. She gave herself a mental shake. 'Come on Sanya. Pull it together. There's no one there. Nothing evil can get in here.' The slight sound of another pair of feet knocked the small reassurance away from her. Sanya swallowed hard and turned around. She tensed up and wished she hadn't turned to look at the large brutish man before her. She let out his name in a shaky breath.

"Fenrir."

"Hello Sanya. Nice to see you again.", he said in his deep husky voice.

Fenrir walked up to Sanya and put his arm around her waist to keep her from going away and pulled her close against his firm torso.

"It's been quite a while.", Fenrir drawled, before he slowly drew his slick tongue up the side of her pale cheek. "Mmmm, you always were so sweet.", he breathed against her skin, causing goose-bumps when it mixed with the wet trail on her face.

Sanya tried to swallow but couldn't because of the knot in her throat.

"You seem a little tense, babe. There's no need to worry about ole Fenny. Besides, I don't play with my food.", he bent his head forward and buried his nose in her raven hair, "You smell so afraid." He bent back up and put his free hand under her chin, pushing her head up. His yellow amber eyes gazed into dark chocolate. Sanya felt no hostility in his bright orbs. She searched for anything to give something away but found nothing.

Sanya was very shocked. She let down her guard a bit and relaxed.

"Ahhh. That's better.", he took the moment to draw her cool, dungeon chilled body closer into his warm arms, "See, you relaxed and nothing bad happened to you."

He smiled down at her, his sharp carnivores gleaming in the dim lighting of the hall. If it weren't for the fact that he tended to eat people with the said shiny teeth, Sanya might think that he looked quite handsome when he smiled. Not that he didn't look good anyways.

"What are you up to Fenrir?", Sanya asked finally having found her voice, albeit somewhat breathy.

"I just missed you."

"And what if I don't believe that?"

"Let me prove it."

His mouth descended and ravaged hers. He licked and nibbled like an animal devouring its prey. His tongue commanded and controlled hers as he raped her mouth. She gripped his shirt in her hands, and she wasn't quite sure, but she may have moaned into the kiss. God knows _he_ did. '_Am I crazy? But lord, he may be a murderer, but he can damn well kiss…ha-he __**slays**__ me._' He drew away minutes later for want of breath. His actions literally leaving Sanya speechless.

"Hmmm, I gotta go. Sorry to be leaving on such short notice, but needless to say my presence isn't exactly wanted inside this place.", he kissed her on the cheek and left quickly.

Sanya started walking backwards and stopped when her back was flush against the stone wall.

"Bloody fucking hell."


	12. Chapter 12

Ch.12

Sanya was standing at her spot at the front of the potions classroom supervising everyone's potions to prevent an accident. But alas, she can't catch everything. She saw Neville's potion flare red a moment too late.

Luckily the cauldron shot towards her when it exploded, not one of the students, and she held up her hand, using magic to deflect the black metal object.

It was silent in the classroom until Sanya started laughing. She was lightly covering her nose with her hand.

"What are you laughing at? You almost got your head knocked off by a cauldron."

"Well, once again my careless nature has aided in my injury."

"Let me see."

Sanya moved her hand away from her nose to let Snape look at it.

"Hmmm, has your nose ever leaned to the right before?"

Sanya's eyes got comically large and she let out a weak no.

"You're okay then.", he said before going back over to his stool.

Sanya stood there dumbfounded. She grinned, "Clever. I can see how you got to be head of Slytherin."

"It's a gift."

Sanya walked around the classroom and looked at different odds and ends.

She picked up a skull and held it up, "To be or not to be, that is the question." To which the skull responded, "Shakespeare."

"Shit! Shit shit shit!," she tossed the skull about, having jumped when it spoke. She began speaking in rapid latin after she sat it down and started backing up. The students wanted to know what she said, Snape however, understood her perfectly. He felt the corners of his mouth try and tug upwards. He walked out of the classroom and began snickering to himself.

After the class let out Snape started snickering again, remembering what Sanya had said.

"Ye gods! He laughs!"

"Exorcise or flatulize this piece of thing before it eats me and we all die horribly?"

"It scared the hell out of me! I just said the first thing that came to mind....did I say flatulize? I thought I said blow up."

"You said gas up."

"Wow. I think I need to brush up on my latin."

"Just a bit I'd say."

They stood for a moment and then abruptly started to laugh.

Sanya hummed merrily on the way to her room. She wondered to herself as to when she had started thinking fondly of the dark sadistic bastard butt monkey. She sighed heavily. 'It's like I'm a student all over again. How pitiful of me.'


	13. Chapter 13

Ch.13

Stephanie couldn't quite figure out what was wrong with Draco. He seemed very withdrawn and kept zoning out with a distant look on his face. She wanted to ask what was bothering him but his mannerisms clearly stated that it was nobody's sodding business.

When they were dismissed to leave their last class of the day Draco left Stephanie and Blaise at the door telling them that he would see them later. After Draco was out of earshot Stephanie voiced her concern.

"What do you think is bothering him?"

"Your guess is as good as mine.", Blaise replied with furrowed brows.

Around half an hour after Stephanie and Blaise got back to the commons, Draco came traipsing in.

He went to a chair next to the fireplace and flopped down with a sigh. He put his arm on the arm rest and sat his head in his hand.

"What's up, mate?", Blaise asked.

"Well…", Stephanie saw Draco's thumb twitch against his pants leg, "I suppose you could say that I'll be going to the ball alone, for starters."

As a touch of festivity, Dumbledore had decided to hold a ball for the students before Christmas break. A little Christmas cheer for the holidays.

"What?!"

"I broke up with Pansy. We just…weren't working out."

"Yeah, I kind of noticed. So why so glum?"

"Not that I'm going to miss her, it's just the fact that we were together for so long that it's a bit difficult to swallow. That's the only reason I let it go on this long, to be honest."

"So you going stag then?"

"I suppose. I may not even go at all."

"But you have to go!", Stephanie voiced in protest.

"Well, on one condition.", Draco said, his trademark smirk reappearing.

"Sure.", she said, somewhat on guard.

"Save a dance for me?"

Stephanie giggled, "Of course."

"Aunt Sanya!", Stephanie came barging into Sanya's room.

"Yes dearling?", Sanya responded as she dug around in a lower cabinet.

"Well…I couldn't really think of anything to wear to the masquerade so I was kind of hoping that maybe, if you weren't busy-"

"You want me to conjure something up, right?", She said standing up with a smirk and tilt of her head, hands on her hips.

"Mmhmm!"

"I guess I could….I feel like a fairy godmother."

"Where's my pumpkin and mice?"

"All I have is a gourd, and the only mice I posses are pet food for Monty and Banana."

Banana being a yellow boa constrictor, and Monty being the currently rogue python.

"Yeesh, good thing I'm already at the castle then."

"What, haven't you ever heard of Cinderella and her gourd carriage and zombie horsemen?", Sanya said in a teasing voice.

"Sorry, I guess I had a deprived childhood."

"Sarcasm, nice, good form. Now, let's see what I can do.", She said pushing up her sleeves.

Stephanie made her way up to the entrance to the great hall where she told Blaise that she would meet him.

When she arrived there the only person standing there had black hair. She did a double take.

"Blaise?"

The black haired person turned around and looked at Stephanie smiling, and then gaping upon seeing her.

A golden sun mask covered the top half of her face; feathers adorned the outside of the mask. Her pale blond hair swept her shoulders. A white ball gown hugged her torso and flared at the hips. Gold ribbon adorned the gown and trimming.

Blaise's hair was black and spiked in the back, his eyes were an unnatural shade of blue that almost seemed to glow in the dim lighting behind his black and silver mask. The mask went across his eyes; silver swirls decorated the mask and contrasted with the black. He wore a black tuxedo with a silver vest underneath.

"Wow.", they both said at the same time.

They laughed before locking arms and entering the great hall.

Stars shone brightly from the bewitched ceiling, bright blue swirling lights floated around above the hall, making the scene look like something from a fantasy novel.

Sanya with a black raven mask sat at a table in a dark blue and black gown sipping pumpkin juice from a goblet.

She looked over as she heard someone sit down.

"Wow, you really went all out. I'm surprised to see you here at all.", she said with obvious sarcasm.

Severus wore exactly what he wore every day.

"I only came here to supervise."

"Naturally."

Sanya absent-mindedly messed around with the small crystal shaped vial and feathers at the end of a long, silver chain necklace.

"Hm. Clever.", he said, the corner of his mouth quirking up into a small smile.

Sanya turned her head to look at him.

"What's that?"

"That vial around your neck. If it's what I think it is-"

"Oh! This!", she said lifting the semi-dark pink vial that seemed to give off its own light. "Amortentia."

"I thought so."

Stephanie and Blaise were standing off to the side of the dance floor at the refreshments. They were talking about some piece of juicy gossip that had been running through the castle Stephanie heard a voice by her ear.

"How about that dance?"

Stephanie turned around to see Draco standing with one arm behind his back and his hand held out to her. His blue-ish grey eyes sparkling from behind his black dragon mask.

She said her hand in his.

"A promise is a promise."

A song started up as the two walked onto the floor.

'There's such a sad love, deep in your eyes.'

"Ah, I love this movie.", Sanya said with a dreamlike sigh.

"Movie?", Severus asked, somewhat confused.

"Well, this song was in a movie. I always felt sorry for the goblin king."

"…"

"It's complicated.", she said with a small laugh.

Stephanie and Draco danced close together, alternating a smooth flow of wide and small movements. Their eyes seemed to call out to each other, in a strange unexplainable way.

'Fallen, As the world falls down'

Their bodies drew closer and closer together as the song wore on. Then the two drew in and their lips met.

~*Falling-falling in love*~

Walking back to the commons Draco spoke up.

"You're a veela?"

"Yeah.", Stephanie said, biting her lip and looking away.

Draco managed to put two and two together.

"So this was what happened to you before. You weren't really sick, were you?"

She shook her head.

"Ah. That explains all the secrecy."

"…why aren't you…you know…"

"Veelas are a part of normal life for me. They pop up in my family every so often."

"That's…a relief.", she said with a breath of air like it was a great weight off of her shoulders.

"You know, I don't think I've ever actually dreaded Christmas break. I'm going to have to steal you away. Maybe get Blaise to be my accomplice.", he said with a mock pondering look on his face.

"You twat.", she said gently shoving him.

Upon returning from Christmas vacation there was a large ruckus in the hall as the students chattered excitedly.

"What's so exciting?", Sanya asked.

"Who knows.", Severus said in a bored tone, as if he could care less.

A student walked up to the staff table in front of Sanya.

"Could you sign this?", she asked in an embarrassed voice.

Sanya grabbed the magazine that the student handed to her and nearly choked on her pudding.

On the cover of Slyther magazine stood Sanya, dressed in a green dress with an open square neckline, a matching witch hat, the rim swooping to one side obscuring one eye. Her straight black hair half pulled back and the free hair was moving in the air. Her lips covered in a black gloss and one visible was covered in dark grey and silver eye-shadow. Such things on the cover as 'Green the new black' 'Bewitching fashion' and 'SLYTHERIN HEIRESS'.

"What?!", Sanya quickly opened to the page number displayed on the cover page.

'After many years of legal battling, Sanya Slytherin Romaine has now officially been declared the Slytherin heir. So now the big question is, who has more money and power? Slytherin name versus Malfoy.

Rumor has it that the two next in line, Draco Malfoy and Stephanie Slytherin Romaine, are an item. Will these two star crossed lovers be doomed from the start? Are they todays modern Romeo and Juliet?

Furthermore, who does the dark beauty have _her_ eyes on? Is there someone in her heart, or is she going to face this man's world alone? Surely there's a dark knight out there to aid this dark damsel in distress against life's obstacles?'

Sanya finished reading the article with a sneer on her face.

"Oh for Salazars sake! Who the devil writes this rubbish?!"

"Once more, who's going to save the knight from you?", Severus asked over her shoulder.

Sanya made a tsking sound and lightly smacked him on the arm.


	14. Chapter 14

Ch.14

Meanwhile Stephanie had just nailed a guy in the face with her fist.

"Don't you ever fucking touch me again!", she screamed as she tried to flail out of the peoples grasp on her arms. The other guys on the team looked at him darkly. One of them feeling inclined to speak, "You're lucky that Draco wasn't here to see that."

"Lucky that I wasn't here to see what, exactly?", Draco said sharply as he entered the quidditch stadium.

"Here to see him grope your girlfriend."

Draco's jaw visibly clenched and his body became tense.

"That violates code. You are automatically off the team."

The guy walked cautiously by Draco, knowing that he couldn't possibly get let off so easily. The guy gave a sigh of relief once he had passed by but, it was for not. Draco twisted around and flung a nasty hex at him putting boils all over his body. The guy screamed and scrambled away as best he could. The guys released Stephanie and she went over to Draco and hugged him.

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it. And guys?"

They gave a sign that they were paying attention.

"If something like that happens again, don't hold Stephanie back."

The guy that spoke up for Stephanie answered with a smirk, "Don't have to tell me twice. Besides that, she's a biter. Better watch out Draco."

Draco raised an eyebrow and looked down at her. She blushed before looking away and mumbling. "I wanted to get loose. What else was I supposed to do? Put a spell on them?"

The guy answered, "Ah, but alas, Dear Stephanie, you have already enchanted us with your spell.", he said as he bowed and took her hand to kiss it. Which Draco promptly wacked.

"Watch it Victor. Do that again and you'll be cleaning balls." Stephanie giggled. "Hmm...that didn't quite come out like I had planned."

"That's quite alright, I'll scrub your balls anytime."

Draco looked at him with a shocked expression.

"Joking Draco. Joking."

"Uh...yeah.", he said as he maneuvered himself behind Stephanie.

"So much for keeping me away from him.", she said with a sarcastic look.

Sanya swayed in tempo to the music that came from the strings of the ebony piano as they were hit upon. She left the last note of the classic Fur Elise stop ringing before she began playing Rondo. Her slender fingers skimmed along the keys of the piano with the fast pace of the song. The song ended and applause came from the corner.

"Bravo Miss Romaine, bravo."

"Thank you, Salazar.", she said to the portrait.

"Anytime. And by the way, you have a visitor."

"What? You're daft nobody is he-", a sharp knock interrupted her sentence, "-re. Nevermind then.",she rose from the red velvet covered seat of the piano bench.

She answered the door with a smile on her face and her standard "How may I help you?"

"Do you have any frog's breath?"

"No, my breath smells fine, thanks."

"That isn't-"

"-what you meant. Yes, I know. I was simply trying to be humorous. Yes, I happen to have some somewhere. Uh...it may take me a moment to find it.", she said as she walked over to her cabinets. She opened an over head cabinet and began searching. A few minutes later Severus jumped from the snitty voice of Salazar.

"For god's sake man, quit standing there and help her look!"

Severus mumbled and walked over to the cabinet and began searching.

Sanya finally managed to find it.

"Aha!", she said as she pulled the vile with a fog like substance swirling around inside.

"Bloody thing took forever to find."

"I would have it organized but...uh....its a work in progress."

"Oh yes, in progress perfectly describes having healing powder next to arsenic."

"I haven't got to that part of the cabinet yet."

"What have you gotten to?"

"Obviously not your brain, because you don't seem to understand what I mean by work in progress. I have not gotten to it yet but it is on my list of things to do. How does that work for you?"

"I guess the same way being a hag works for you. Perfectly fine.", he said as he turned and left, closing the door behind him. Sanya yelled at him through the door, "I would rather be a hag than an old fart!"

"Graceful. Way to win with dignity."

"Shut up Salazar."

"Well, excuse me.", he said as he exited the picture frame.

Meanwhile Stephanie and Draco met up with Blaise while dropping their things off from practice in the commons. The Slytherin trio made their way down to the great hall for dinner. Unfortunately their simple trip to dinner was interrupted by an unwanted visitor.

"Pansy."


	15. Chapter 15

Ch.15

"Hello skank.", Pansy said to Stephanie with a sneer.

"You're not exactly one to call someone a skank, Daisy.", Stephanie shot back nonchalantly.

"It's PANSY!", She yelled, dropping the cool demeanor.

"Hmph. Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn."

Pansy's face turned red and she drew her wand and shot some sort of curse towards Stephanie, who dodged it. Stephanie smirked at Pansy and drew her white wand.

"Thanks for the initiative, Flower-pot.", she countered with a curse of her own. It bounced off an invisible shield.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did your little spell not work?"

Even though Stephanie didn't show it, Pansy's mere presence was starting to get under her skin.

"You think that little shield will protect you from me? Not hardly.", Stephanie placed her wand back in her belt and kicked her foot up, effectively slamming it right smack into Pansy's pug face.

She yelped and reached for her nose, blood dripping from behind her hand, rage imminent on her features.

"How dare you!", Pansy pointed her wand at Stephanie yet again, "Counter this, bitch! Imperio!"

Stephanie's eye's hardened and flashed a dangerous silver."Is that the best you've got?"

"DAMN YOU! CRUCIO!"

Stephanie's silver eyes widened, her breathing hitched, and a tear trickled down the side of her pale face before she screamed bloody murder. She clutched her head on both sides, knotting her hands in her hair, her white wings bursting forth from her back as she collapsed on the ground. Draco and Blaise rushed to her side as curious students and faculty, namely one extremely pissed off Sanya, exited the great hall to see what was going on.

Sanya, having been witness to the curse several times, she knew exactly what was happening. She shot the counter at the writhing, screaming, form of her niece and turned to the caster of the dark spell.

"You vile little insignificant wretch!", she struggled against the hold that the innumerable amount of faculty members had on her.

"Steph?! Stephanie?!", Draco and Blaise called out desperately to Stephanie's now sobbing form. Her white wings a shredded and bloody mass of bone, blood, and feathers. When they got no response they both directed their attention towards Pansy, and not caring about the faculties presence, shot the nastiest curses they could conjure at her. Sending her running off, various people chasing after her.

After Draco and Blaise were pried off of Stephanie, Hagrid carried her to the infirmary. Blaise and Draco following with a mixture of anger and worry etched on their faces. Leaving Sanya standing rigid in the entrance hall. And, as commanded, Severus by her side to watch after her, making sure she didn't go after Pansy. Her posture and stance emitted a calm fury, while the air and energy radiating from her portrayed a force not to be screwed around with. Her eyes covered by her black bangs, pale fists clenched by her sides. She looked up, her eyes a radiant blue.

With a short exclamation from her, every door, including the large ones at the great hall and at the entrance, slammed with a strong invisible force.

McGonagall came rushing after hearing the sound.

"Good heavens, what was that?!"

"I would say....a little anger management."

His comment earned him a stern harsh glare from Sanya. Making even his blood feel like it would freeze where it ran in his veins. Then something dawned on him.

"Your eyes aren't blue."

Her eyes widened and she quickly turned on her heel and began walking away at a very swift pace.


	16. Chapter 16

Ch.16

Severus chased after Sanya as she stormed off down the hallway.

"Stop and explain yourself!"

She ignored him and continued on.

He caught up to her and snatched a hold of her wrist. She turned around rapidly and snapped at him, her voice rough with anger and hurt.

"WHAT?!", her pupils retreated to slits, leaving more of the hypnotizing blue iris' exposed.

"...you're not human."

Sanya looked flustered for a moment before she grabbed Severus by a sleeve and dragged him into the nearest room.

"You must promise me that you won't tell anyone about this."

"It all depends on what you are hiding."

Sanya fought with herself for a moment before coming to a conclusion as to what to do in her current situation.

Her dark black hair faded to a bright blond, and white wings, with black feathers scattered throughout, shimmered into view.

"I'm a Valkyrie."

"…why did your eyes change color?"

"When my emotions run amuck the Valkyrie characteristics begin showing themselves.", she said before having another emotional outbreak, "After all the trouble I went through to protect her from what happened to me, and I go and slip up! She could have died! Hell, for all I know she could be dying right now!", after a moment of silence Sanya looked over her shoulder to check that Severus was still behind her in the hallway.

"What? No questions? No smarmy remarks?"

"I'm still getting over the fact that your evil twin and you switched places."

"I would punch you, but I have better things to worry about at the moment."

"...shouldn't you be checking up on that niece of yours?"

"I-I should but, if I see her like that again, it will be my breaking point. I don't need any more stress in my life."

A moment later hiccupping noises and sniffling graced Severus's ears.

"Are you crying."

He was greeted by a huffy and clogged sounding "doe"

"You are!"

"So?"

"Until now I only thought you had two emotions; Insane and angry."

"That's because it takes a lot to make me sad, let alone cry-and no I'm not an ice queen! It's just....when your life hits rock bottom at a point, everything else doesn't seem so bad. Although, I cried now mostly because I'm pissed off. I'm a little weird like that."

By this point they had begun walking downstairs to the dungeons area. A few minutes of silence had passed between them.

"Severus?"

"Hm?"

"Would you please quit staring at me, it's kind of disturbing."

"Sorry, it's just that...it's such a surprise."

"Didn't you suspect before that I wasn't human because I always used magic without a wand?"

"Yes, but that was only a suspicion. But now, well, you're standing here in the flesh as a bloody Valkyrie. I also didn't know what you were. For all I knew you could have been a werewolf."

"Yes. I'm a werewolf. Didn't you hear me during full moons, howling away in my tower?"

"Ha ha. You're killing me. I'm dying of laughter."

"Asshat."

"Interesting insult."

"Well, Sadistic Bastard Butt-Monkey was getting too long to say...especially when I thought about adding 'From the Firey Pits of Hell' to the end of it. I supposed I could have used an acronym...SBBMFFPH...hell, even that's too long."

"It also sounds rather foul."

"It fits your description perfectly. Tall, dark, creepy, sadistic, shuns sunlight, might hate garlic, burns when he touches any type of holy relic, probably in need of a good-ouch! stepped on a bloody screw."

"Again, you're oh so funny.", he said with sarcasm dripping from every word,"...what was the last part of that sentence?"

"Uhhhh..."

Footsteps sounded from the shadows and a person emerged.

"Well bugger me sideways."

"Such a lovely greeting, kitten."

"It fits for you."

"Oh, I didn't know you and fangy hear were intimate. I'm sure you enjoy eating small children together....so as not to interrupt anything I'll be leaving."

"Leave me and I'll spike your dinner with Black Nightshade."

"I have a sudden urge to stay here that has nothing to do with a certain death threat."

"Actually, I think _I'll_ go.", she turned to leave and was soon enveloped in a hug from behind.

"I would suggest that you let go of me."

"But I'm not doing any harm."

"Let. Me. Go."

"Awww, come on kitten."

Sanya let out the closest thing to a growl that a human could make and chomped down on Fenrir's arm. He yowled and immediately let her go.

He blinked in shock for a moment.

"You know, after all my years of being a werewolf, I can honestly say that that was the first time that some one's ever bit me. Kind of...does funny things to my manly bits.", he took one step towards Sanya and a nearby suit of armor became animated and walked in his way, obviously animated by Sanya.

"Isn't it time that you leave?", Severus said bitterly to the persistent Fenrir.

"For now, seeing as kitten isn't all hugs and kisses like she was last time.", he said before he fled.

"Hugs and kisses?"

"He hugged and kissed me. I was in no way thrilled. He just won't take a hint. He's just like a-"

"Love starved puppy?"

"I was going to say insatiable rabid werewolf."

"Close enough."

"In what way is that?"

"In the way that I don't care and am going to bed."

"Good idea. Cept I think I'll go to my bed."

Severus stared at her with a dull look.

"Too many wise cracks for one night, I know. I get like that when I'm stressed."


	17. Chapter 17

Ch.17

Sanya awoke with a scream. Her heart pounded in her chest as she struggled to grasp consciousness. She brought her hands to her face as her breathing went back to its normal tempo. The moonlight glistened on her pale, sweat glazed skin giving off an ethereal glow. The moon highlighting her eyes that were now blue from stress.

She got up from her bed and walked over to her window and opened it, hoping the refreshing air would help sooth her. 'At least I got off easy. The last time I forgot to take my dreamless sleep potion....guh. Why do these nightmares still haunt me after so long?' She looked up at the bright sky, the stars sparkling, then she dropped her gaze to the school grounds. 'What the?...no....', she squinted and confirmed what she initially thought. 'Fenrir. What's he still doing here?...well, there's only one way to find out.' Sanya adopted her raven form and flew to the ground from her window.

Fenrir sat reclined on a large rock setting near the edge of a cliff that overlooked the ocean. He had one leg extended, the other bent, and he was leaning back using his arms as support, the wind ruffling his short brown hair. He looked over when he heard a twig snap and then some cursing.

"Bloody limbs, bloody forest, bloody sticks."

"W-what are you doing here?"

"That's what I came here to ask you. Shouldn't you be with your 'Dark lord'?"

Fenrir took on a look of disgust.

"We're not as close as people may think."

"Oh? Because last time I checked you were one of his best."

"Something....changed my mind."

"What?"

"It's....not important.", he said as he looked away from her.

"What are you hiding?", Sanya asked as she maneuvered around to look into his amber eyes, glittering in the starlight.

He looked startled and his face a little pink, "N-nothing!", he said as he looked away again.

To say Sanya was confused was an understatement. She couldn't figure it out. Normally Fenrir acted brazen, highly abrasive, crude, and an overall dominant persona.

"Okay, who are you and what did you do with wolf man?"

"What?"

"Why are you all of a sudden Mr. Shy-guy?"

"Well...I uh....again, it's not important! I think I'll be going now!", he said, trying to get up to flee.

"Like hell you will.", Sanya said, forcible pushing him back down, much to his surprise.

"Now _I'm _confused. Normally you can't wait for me to leave and wish that I had never shown up in the first place. What's up with you?"

"Curiosity killed the cat.", Fenrir grinned a little and looked away, "Euh, bad choice of words. But tell me, what the bloody hell changed you so much?!"

"I-I...", he squirmed under her glare.

"Well?!"

He got up in a quick, liquid movement and blurted out, "Because something about seeing you like that actually touched me! Alright?!"

"What?", Sanya looked at him stunned.

"Seeing you go through the torture that you did...I felt something, and it wasn't the normal sadistic glee that I had grown accustomed to. Hell, I don't even know why myself. I even wanted to help you! Were I not such a coward, or so confused, I would have. At the time, I wasn't even aware I had anything resembling a soul or these weird _feelings_.", his words trailed off as he averted his gaze away from Sanya and plastered his eyes to the stars once again.

Sanya walked over closer to him and put a hand on each side of his legs and leaned into his face, staring hard into his eyes.

"W-what are you doing?", the tell-tale pink gracing his features once more.

"I'm trying to tell if I detect lying. You seem truthful, but then again, Voldemort's subjects are highly viced in deceit."

Fenrir replied in a gruff, choked voice, "I'm desperate, babe.", he swallowed," What do I gotta do to make you believe me?"

Somewhat reluctantly, Sanya sat up and took a small crystal from one of the necklaces around her neck.

"Take this."

"What is it?"

"Just a simple truth potion."

"I'm gonna take a guess and say it's not all that simple."

"Your guess would be correct."

"...if I take it, will you trust me?"

"No, but I'll believe you. I suppose it could be considered a step forward."

"That's all I needed to know.", he said as he took the potion from her hand and downed it, "Let the interrogation begin."

"Are you spying for Voldemort?"

"Not here, no. I'm also trying to find a way to escape him."

"Where have you been staying?"

"Around here."

"Is everything you told me before now the truth?"

"Yes."

"So you truly have feelings for me and would never intentionally do anything to harm me?"

"Mmmmhm, and I would rather put myself in danger than hurt you.", he said, leaning back on his hands once again, a smile across his face.

Sanya speculated on what to ask next, as her stomach did weird flippy things from his previous comment. Having already confirmed that he had, indeed, however unbelievable it was, converted to the light side. _'Hopefully it's permanent.'_

"…Just curious but…how old are you?"

"52."

"Holy shit!...You look rather good for 52." '_Very_ good actually....yum....the hell?',she shook her head.

"Yeah, like yourself, I've got that whole immortal thing going on.", he said, rubbing his neck and smiling, his eyes crinkling cutely at the corners.

"We're rather different on that, I'm afraid."

"How so?"

"Mine comes without fangs and a craving for raw meat and also without going wolfy at the full moon."

"True. But I've actually quit doing the whole raw meat thing."

"What? You're kidding me."

"Nope."

"I would say you're lying, but the potion is still in effect."

"Besides, just think, had I not quit that whole thing I would have devoured you right now."

"I'm not sure whether to be flattered or creeped out."

A moment of silence passed between the two of them before Sanya decided to speak up again.

"None of that really explains why you're acting so differently now as opposed to how you were before."

"Ah...the moon," he said, sounding somewhat detached.

"Yeeees, you, werewolf, I get that."

"Because I let that part of me run loose for so long it's such a large part of me."

"What do you mean?"

"The closer it gets to the full moon, the more the beast fights to get loose."

"In other words, the you I'm talking to now is the real you and the other…"

"Is a shell that acts on impulse and aggression, top of the food chain kind of persona."

"-and horny."

Fenrir blushed and ducked his head, once again rubbing the back of his neck, and chuckling, "Nope, that was all me."

Sanya inhaled, "…oh."

Another moment passed between the two before Fenrir let out a chuckle, "Nice pajamas, by the way."

Sanya looked down at her black tank top and baby blue bottoms with chibified onigiri. The onigiri seemed to be mocking her with their cute little cartoon blushing faces.

"...they will eat your soul if you mention them to anyone.", Sanya said with an ominous look that, were Fenrir not enamored by the glowering Valkyrie, would have had him shaking like a pup with its tail between its legs. Instead she got a pout and an amused-"But you're so cuuuute~!"


	18. Chapter 18

Ch.18

Sanya stalked groggily into the great hall.

"You look like a Nosferatu."

"You too."

"Thanks."

"Then again, that is your natural look. Mine just happens to be from a lack of sleep."

"Did you not go to sleep after we had parted ways?"

"I did, then woke up."

"I see."

Draco and Blaise both skipped breakfast, both too upset to feel like eating.

"I swear I'm going to strangle Pansy!"

"Not if I don't get there first, mate."

"And that old hag won't let me in to see Stephanie!"

"She did say it was for her own good."

"I don't care what old Pomphrey says, what's seeing me going to hurt her any?"

"Shock? I don't bloody know! Do I look like a nurse?"

Draco stared at him for a moment.

"Uh...don't answer that."

"Right."

The next day Draco and Blaise were walking by the infirmary again when they spotted Sanya outside. She knocked her small, pale hand against the wooden door.

"I'm sorry but I can't let you in to see Stephanie."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm sorry. In her delicate condition there can't be any risks taken."

Blaise and Draco watched on as Sanya stared hard into Pomphrey's eyes and Pomphrey just went void of any kind of emotion or recognition.

"Woah, talk about the lights being on and nobody being home.", Blaise whispered.

"Dude, you're in my bubble!", Draco whispered as he swatted at his offended and tickled ear.

"Sorry, bubble boy.", Blaise said as he watched Draco get up, "Hey! Where are you going?"

"To see Stephanie. I'm tired of waiting!"

"It's been two days!"

"Exactly!"

"Er, right.", he said as he followed suit.

They walked behind the curtain and startled Sanya.

"What are you two doing here?!"

"We're worried too!", they both managed to say at the same time.

"Point taken, I suppose."

Draco and Blaise then looked at Stephanie. Her white wings still mending.

"She's....glowing."

"She's in full Veela form. Her body can't hold up the human guise at this point, nor would it be healthy to. In this form her immortality is at full capacity."

"Wait, she's immortal? So she was never at any danger of dying?"

"She was, this isn't the 'full' immortal type deal. She'll live forever provided she doesn't die by murder or some such thing. She is more resilient to some injury being inhuman. But this seemed to react worse than normal. Some things do. I just want to know how that wretch could cast such a strong cruciatus. Learned it from her mum no doubt."

"I hear that her mother is a death-eater.", Draco said as he tucked a piece of hair behind Stephanie's ear,"...well that's new."

"I assume you're referring to her pointy ears?"

"Yeah. I guess I've never seen her in complete Veela form before."

"I wouldn't imagine so. Also, were her eyes open and any male, other than you seeing as you're her mate and go unaffected, would go completely gaga and otherwise trip over himself."

"That makes me feel secure."

"You have no need to worry. You are her mate. Although, that doesn't mean she is without free will. So perhaps-"

"You're not helping."

"Sorry dear."

"So how did you do that thing?"

"What thing? The thing with Pomphrey? That...was a mind crack. That's what I refer to it as, anyways. It's the equivalent of throwing a wrench into a machine. It's not harmful exactly but it takes it a while to boot back up."

"Can you-"

"No. I will not teach you how. It's very dangerous if you are inexperienced, plus it's very difficult. Usually the wizards and witches who are best at it are skilled in occlumency or some such. They, therefore in turn, are difficult to work it upon. We should also be going before anyone else comes in....and before her mind boots."

Sanya and Blaise walked out and, after kissing Stephanie lightly on her forehead and nuzzling her nose with his, Draco exited as well.

Blaise and Draco went with Sanya and joined her for tea in her room. After a while of Sanya and Blaise conversing, Sanya noticed Draco was rather out of it.

"What are you thinking about, dear?"

"About how I'm going to try and convince my godfather to teach me that mind trick thing.", Draco said with a smirk.

"Your godfather would be a fool to do something like that."

"You know him, actually."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah."

"Well who is it?"

"Uncle Sev."

An extremely awkward moment of silence occurred.

"WHAT?! What the-but why?"

"Because my father was his best friend, obviously."

"Severus is your....but I had no idea. I just can't seem to imagine him being anything more than a child's worst nightmare!"

"Really? I thought you would have known him better by now. Although, it does make sense. He doesn't respond well to people who challenge him."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You know the side that everyone else knows, the slightly wicked and sadistic side. You do seem to get the rather tamed side of that though. The side that I've grown accustomed too is actually...well, it's just different. He's still sarcastic but he's also someone I can rely on, and almost, dare I say it, kind."

"Sacre-bleu!"

"That's a very nice French accent."

"Uh...Well, that is where Stephanie and I have mainly resided for many, many years now, France."

"Oh yeah, sometimes I forget that I haven't know her for my whole life."

"How cute, I'm sure she feels the same. Actually she's told me something similar to that."

"Really?"

"Would I lie about something like that?"

"I don't suppose so."

The three of them sat in a companionable silence for a while until Blaise spoke up again.

"A while ago you said that Stephanie will live forever if she's not killed. So does that mean she'll outlive Draco and I?"

"Well, under different circumstances, yes she would. But seeing as there are certain things that I believe will come about, I think she'll be cured of that."

"What certain things?"

"Um...when an immortal magical creature finds a human and marries them...and then...uh...when they then also....lose their virginity their immortality is revoked."

"So you think that her and Draco will..."

"I'm not saying a thing.", she said, taking a sip of her tea.

Around 7:00 in the afternoon, Sanya was finally getting around to organizing her cabinets full of potion ingredients.

"Wolfsbane....wolfsbane-wolfsbane-wolfs-aha! I knew I had some.", Sanya said as she picked the jar up and put it with the group of things that began with W. She then squatted down to scavenge some more things from her cabinet when there was a knock at the door.

"Come in!", she said cheerily. 'Only one person comes up to my room at this hour.'

"Hello, Sanya.", Severus said with his normal dose of venom.

"To what do I owe this displeasure?", she said with a smile in her voice, making a small attempt to try and coax out the side that Draco mentioned.

"My godson told me that you informed him of your identity."

"I thought he should know. No use delaying the inevitable, right?"

"Hm, indeed."

Sanya once again found what she was looking for in the back of the cabinet and began to stand back up when she smacked her head hard on the cabinet ledge.

"GAH!", she said and she clutched both hands to the spot, after dropping and breaking the jar, and standing up. Both of her eyes were screwed shut with the immense sharp pain at the top of her head.

"Are you alright?!", Severus said as he quickly approached her and attempted to pry her hands away to see if she was bleeding.

"For heaven's sake, I enjoy the sentiment, but really Fenny-er uh-buuuuhhh..."

"Who did you call me?", he said, suddenly becoming tense and withdrawn again.

"I called you-uh...ffff-", she drug out the f sound while her mind worked for something that sounded like Fenny but she was too late and by the time she thought of something she had already received a nasty glare from Severus and he had left her room, slamming the door on his way out.

"-ffffuck!", she said, disgusted with herself.

She walked over to her four-poster canopy bed and sat down on the edge of the mattress.

"Smooth move, ex-lax!"

"Shut. Up. Salazar."


	19. Chapter 19

Ch.19

Sanya woke up the next morning, her stomach aching. 'What on earth?' She simply waved it off as nothing and went to her first class, skipping breakfast all together to avoid Severus' frosty wrath. She taught her classes without a hitch, other than the dull ache in her stomach gradually getting worse throughout the day. She also had the foresight to avoid going to Severus' last class of the day. That was a case of drama she need not experience, and from what she overheard from the students in her class, he was in a rather foul mood. So, apparently, on top of her stomach problem she also had to contend with Severus the Grouch. She couldn't quite grasp why he was so pissy over her slip up. She had a speculation, but she just couldn't seem to grasp why that would be the reason. 'I mean, why would he be jealous, and what of? Or maybe he just dislikes Fenny and hates being compared to him? Yes. That must be it...otherwise....nonono. It's just not possible.'

When she got back to her room later that night she immediately went to bed, feeling much worse than she did when she had woken up that morning. The dull ache now a sharp pain. 'What's wrong with me? I feel so....wrong.' Sanya rolled over and fell asleep, not bothering to change into sleep wear.

The next day Sanya woke up and used a majority of her remaining energy to roll out of bed. It was already lunch time and she decided that she would rather go to the great hall rather than die in her room. Perhaps death was taking it too far. Although she did feel rather shitty. She walked with quite a visible swagger, only holding her stomach with one hand so she could use her other to lean against the cool stone wall. When she finally arrived at her seat beside Severus she sat down and plopped her head down on the table, both arms wrapped around her middle. She assumed she had a fever when she suddenly felt freezing. After a moment of her shivering, and an elbow from Minerva to Severus, Severus asked if she was okay. When she turn her head to face him he saw that her lips were a blue hue, almost a purple. Her breathing coming out in erratic gasps, pupils a thin slit in a sea of electric-neon blue. The breath coming out of her so cold that it was visible in the air. Severus' hand shot to her forehead.

"You're freezing."

"Am I?", she said with an estranged laugh.

In a short moment her hands flew from her stomach and held the sides of her head tightly. There were so many voices, no thoughts, racing through her head.

"Shut up! shut up shut up SHUT UP SHUT UP!", her plea started out as a whisper and grew into a shout until the whole of the great hall heard her and fell into absolute silence. She could finally focus on the one voice in her head.'I'm heeeeere!'

At that moment Bellatrix Lestrange came strutting in through the large doors that had been flung open upon her arrival. She walked until she stood in the middle of the great hall. Sanya stood from her seat woozily and weakly made her way to stand before Bellatrix.

"Voldemort misses you so. He sent me here to give you a gift, one fit for the TRUE heir of Slytherin!", she said with a flick of her wand.

Sanya retched, her hands still holding her stomach. Then she retched again, this time collapsing to the ground on her knees. The students and faculty looking on in horror as a slime coated snake emerged from her mouth, it's green scales shining with her saliva, and was distributed upon the floor.

"Guh. Tell Voldemort that he can keep his gift!", she said through half lidded worn eyes when she had recovered. Then she added something in parsletongue and the snake shot over and leaped down Bellatrix's throat, a gurgled scream emerged from her throat as she fled from the grounds. Sanya blacked out completely. Her body rolled over onto the floor, her ebony hair spread out around her pale face. Now that the cold from the vile spell had left her, she carried a fever. A slight red painted her high pronounced cheekbones.

'Surely,' she reasoned, 'shitty is an understatement for the way I feel at the moment.' Sanya thought while staring at the back of her eyelids. She felt kind of like a rag-doll at the moment, as if all her limbs hadn't been used in a while.

"You poisoned her!"

"I did not!", she heard Severus announce rather sharply.

"She's been out for days now!"

"That was the point!"

"But why has she shown no signs of waking?"

'Oh. So this is what woke me up? Well that's just randy.'

"For the name of-! When one is under a sleeping potion, the desired effect is a very temporary comatose state. Also, thank you very much for waking me with your tard-carted, pointless, childish, dim-witted argument!", Sanya said as she opened her eyes, her voice rising towards the end.

"You're awake!", Severus and Pomfrey said in surprise. Both of them staring down at her from where they stood over her.

"Oh my, how observant thou art.", Sanya replied snidely.

She looked around and deduced that she was in the infirmary. White. Whitewhitewhite. It assaulted her poor retinas and made her squint. The light dimmed a bit when she concentrated on the light sources.

After running one last scan, Pomfrey left.

Sanya took in Severus's appearance. He looked...a bit disheveled. He had purple under his eyes from an evident lack of sleep, and his hair was a bit goofy looking.

"What're you doing here?", Sanya said running her words together a bit more than usual, her mouth not quite wanting to work well for her yet.

"She," Severus said, indicating with a nod of his head towards Pomfrey's office,"called me here. Making a fuss of how I killed you. As if."

"Ah. I see.", Sanya said as she sat up in her bed and hit her elbow on a railing. She paused after she did and heard the ringing noise of it. "Um....I...didn't feel that at all."

"Oh...Well, you see, my sleeping potions tend to have that effect if they're made to last for a while."

"Oh. How lovely."

Sanya looked around the room searching for her niece.

"She's gone."

"What?!", Sanya exclaimed as her heart started pounding in her ears.

"No-no! I mean that she's better now and was released earlier today."

"Thank god! You scared me half to death!"

"I tend to have that effect often.", he paused for a moment debating on how to tell Sanya, "Her physical wounds were healed at least, but she seems to have lost something about her."

"I can only hope that it will mend itself over time. I would say that time heals all wounds, but that would make me a hypocrite. I'll be going to visit Steph now.", she said as she got off the bed....and immediately fell face forward.

"Then again, maybe not.", she spoke into the floor, laying flat, the top of her head inclined back a bit, her hands against the floor almost under her shoulders.

"Sanya!", Severus exclaimed as he bent and picked her up by her arms.

He attempted to set her on her feet.

"No use for me to even try to walk at the moment, Severus. I'd probably just get a broken or twisted ankle for my efforts."

"Very well then.", he said as he scooped her up and gently deposited her back in the white infirmary bed.

She just sat there, feeling very tiny. Then she made an attempt to move her leg. Nothing.

"Well, bugger. What kind of potions' master are you? A numbing sleeping potion. Bah!"

"Considering I had a short time to make it due to someone-"

"Oh don't even try and turn this on me! I couldn't help that someone decided to pull a gruesome version of pulling a rabbit out of a hat. The hat being me and the-", Sanya snapped her mouth shut and turned her head away from facing him sharply. She didn't trust to say anything more, her stomach already feeling unsteady by the memory of the scene that had taken place earlier.

"Alright, I'm sorry."

Sanya turned and stared at him.

"You? You're actually sorry? I'm gonna...I dunno. Oh...wait....yeah I do.", then leaned over the side of the bed away from Severus and deposited more bile from her stomach onto the floor.

"I'm kind of getting tired of this whole being sick thing.", she said once she had recovered again.

"Pomfrey said she detected no illness."

"You try throwing up a snake sent to you by the snake-charmer from hell and see how you feel."

"I'm afraid I'll have to pass on that, I never was much of a person for things like that. So unusual, I know.", he said, almost smiling.

"By George, I've managed to amuse you!", She said raising her left hand to place it in front of her mouth in a gesture of mock surprise."Yes! I have feeling!", she shouted as she jumped out of bed yet again. Then fell once more, only Severus caught her this time. "In my arms, at least.", she said smiling up at Severus.

"So it would appear.", he said looking down at her bright smiling face. Then something unbelievable happened.


	20. Chapter 20

Ch.20

Draco stared, un-amused, as Blaise shook his ass inches from his face while singing some song about cracks, corn, and some guy named Jimmy, and to tell the truth, he didn't give a shit.

"Oh. Come. On!", Blaise said, shaking his ass to punctuate each word. After getting no reaction he looked at Draco in between his legs. "Look, I know how you feel about Steph, I'm worried too, but she's going to be fine!"

"How could you possibly know how I feel?!", Draco snapped at his rear-end.(Blaise's, not his own, although that would be funny)

Blaise glared at him, which was rather hard to do since he was still looking at him through his legs, "Oh, you're right, I couldn't possibly know how you feel. I've only known her since I was a baby! And you've known her for soooo long now.", Blaise snarked back.

Draco opened his mouth and then clamped it shut when Stephanie came walking into the commons.

"Stephanie!", Draco yelled as he rushed over to her. He stopped, however, when she flinched when he reached out to touch her. "Stephanie? What's wrong?"

"I...I...", she bit her lip then shrugged, "It's nothing. But I'm sleepy. I'm going to go to bed now." Draco stared after her, at a loss for words or actions. When Stephanie had left the commons Draco asked Blaise, "I thought you said she would be okay?"

"...she might not be now, but if I know her she'll be back to herself soon. She's a tough chick."

"I hope you're right."

The next morning Draco and Blaise were waiting for Stephanie in the common room as per usual when Blaise gripped Draco's wrist so tight that it popped.

"Ouch! Bloody hell! What was that....for.", he said as he saw Stephanie coming down the stairs.

"Well hell."

Stephanie's silver eyes peeked out from behind her black hair and her lips glimmered with black gloss.

Blaise's grip got even tighter on Draco's wrist.

"OUCH! What the hell Blaise? Let go!"

"Sorry.", Blaise ground out through clenched teeth as he snapped his hand away. "I'm absolutely going to kill that bitch.", Blaise said, shaking with his built up anger towards the one who put his best friend in such a dark predicament.

Blaise stood up sharply from the armrest he had been perched on and started to dart towards the door but was stopped when Draco grabbed him roughly by the shirt to keep him from doing something stupid.

"Calm down!"

"Don't tell me to calm down!", Blaise yelled as he struggled to get lose and during the flailing hit Draco in the nose with his elbow, causing Draco to let go and grab his nose. But instead of continuing on he now vehemently apologized to Draco as Stephanie came running over.

"Are you alright?! Man, I'm sorry!"

"I'm fine, don't worry about it. I'm just gonna drown in my own blood is all."

"Here.", Stephanie said as she put some kind of white powder on his nose and the bleeding stopped. "That should make it better.". Everyone couldn't help but notice that Stephanie was much more soft spoken than usual.

"Wow. That's neat. What is that stuff?", Draco said after casting a cleaning spell on himself.

"Um...I don't know.", Stephanie said with a shrug.

It was obvious that Stephanie's new quiet nature was bothering Blaise, especially when he kicked a table, and then started hopping up and down slurring curse words together.

When Sanya finally got steadied on her feet McGonagall came prancing into the infirmary.

"What a mess!"

"Minerva, what happened?", Severus asked in disbelief.

"Stephanie's cauldron exploded and this horrible pink gook went everywhere! I tried everything I could think of but it just wouldn't go away!", she said as a big gloop of the pink gook slimed down from her hat. Sanya's eyes grew even larger as she watched in horror as the gook plopped on the floor.

Severus looked down at Sanya.

"You're being awfully quiet....and why are your eyes so big?"

"Uh...well....you see....I'm uh....I have a um....pink phobia."

"You're kidding me."

"Heh. Wish I were, Severus."

"Did you two not hear me?! The students could be stained for life! And it was Stephanie's cauldron, of all people!"

"Simple cleansing potion.", both Sanya and Severus said at the same time. Minerva looked at them in amusement, their potion expertise never ceased to amaze her. Then Sanya snapped to,

"Stephanie? My Stephanie?! Oh bullocks! Something really is wrong with her!"

The three professors then made their way to the disastrous scene.

Severus came walking briskly into the potions classroom, followed by Minerva and a rather wild looking Sanya. Sanya walked to the front of the room, opened her mouth to say something, shut it as her eyes got very large as if she were trying to keep herself from doing something, then she abruptly turned on her heels and stalked out of the room and shut the door. Then Severus's fingers curled and his eyes widened when his ears were assaulted by a very loud scream. As normal as could please, Sanya came walking back in the classroom and said in a quiet hoarse voice, "If you will all go to madam Pomfrey she has a cleansing solution that should take care of your...problem."

The students immediately stood up and left, the black haired Stephanie walked by her as she exited. Severus noted that a muscle in Sanya's jaw tensed when she did so. As soon as Minerva walked out of the classroom and closed the door, having left to supervise the class, a tense silence ensued. It was to be broken by Severus.

"I...forgot to mention that your niece has taken to...a new look.", he said calmly.

Another silence followed. Until Sanya stomped her left foot as she went into Valkyrie mode, threw her head back and let forth another blood curdling scream. When she finally ceased she cocked her head to one side to pop her neck and smoothed her hands over her dress, a habit that she had. As calmly as could be, she put her pinky finger under Severus's desk and sharply pulled her hand in an upwards crossing motion by herself, sending the large desk flipping and landing with a harsh crack on the stone floor.

"...whoops. Seems I...'forgot to mention' I have super-human strength. Oh well.", she said as she fixed a hard glare at him with her blue slitted eyes and swept out of the room, once her glamour was properly restored. A certain matching painting decided to speak up, "Smooth move Severus."

"Don't you patronize me!", he said as he glared at the portrait.

"Glaring at a portrait. By all means take your anger out on me, seeing as the source of it has already fled."

Severus started to respond but instead settled for a deep breath, and also a black piece of cloth thrown over the portrait for good measure.

"Oh, that's real nice!"

Severus smiled over the fact that at least he could ruin some ones day...even if it was just a portrait of Salazar Slytherin.


	21. Chapter 21

Ch.21

Severus had finally finished cleaning up the last of the pink goo from hell when there was a shy knock at the classroom door. He gave out an aggravated sigh, but then on second thought, the idea of scaring some child witless proved to be entertaining.

"Who is it?", he said dauntingly.

"Sanya.", she said meekly from the other side of the door.

Severus walked briskly to the door, organizing the words in his head that he planned to let fly. When he opened the door, Sanya was quicker with her words.

"I'm sorry for my little tantrum earlier."

She stood and smoothed her dress and also wrung her hands while she said this, her light brown eyes looking anywhere but at Severus. As cruel as he could be at times, he simply didn't have it in him to break her spirit any further.

"Little tantrum? I saw you flip a desk into the air two-no-three times your weight. With your pinky finger."

She looked at her pinky and then looked up at him and waved at him with said pinky, a small smile on her face. He sighed and stepped back from the doorway and allowed her in.

"You know what they say, don't judge a book by it's cover.", she said, walking inside.

"But of course, you seem to be the walking personification of that little saying."

"Oh? Not really, I don't think so."

"You look human, whereas, you are not."

"Point 1."

"You can flip a large desk with your pinky."

"Point 2."

"You look like a student but are a professor."

"Point 3, and I do?", she said with a quizzical expression.

"Yes. If I had to guess your age...well...graduate at 17...you taught Stephanie all the years in school....so that puts you at twenty-two."

"Ha! Twenty-two?! Not hardly! I wish I were twenty-two again!", she said with an amused expression.

"Well how old are you then?"

"Thirty-eight!"

"But that's my age!"

"Congratulations Severus. You win absolutely nothing. Thanks for playing.", she said as she surveyed the mess of a desk on the floor. With a simple wave of her hand the desk righted itself and all the breaks had been fixed.

"And also, you look frail but could probably magic the socks off Merlin."

"Point 4. I see what you mean."

"I knew you would come around sometime.", the corners of his mouth crept up into a smirk,"Old stubborn hag."

"Old? Look in the mirror you old sadistic decrepit bastard butt monkey from the pits of hell.", she said smirking back.

Severus put his hand over his heart, "Oh, well, now that's just hurtful. It gets me right here.", he said tapping his hand in mock hurt.

"Where is that? The black void in your chest?"

"Ouch. Touche."

"I don't ever remember Quidditch games being held this late in the year!", Draco said waving his arms about.

Stephanie replied in the same quiet, shy voice that she had since her mishap, "Perhaps it has to do with all the problems that have been going on lately. They delayed them til after Christmas break, did they not? So that students could concentrate on their studies for the OWLS?"

"Yeah. But I'm anxious to see what it's like to play at night!"

"Yes.", she looked like she wanted to say more but Blaise came rushing down from the dorms waving a parchment around and ranting. When he got up to Stephanie he shoved it in between her face and her book.

"What the hell is that?!"

Stephanie focused on it...then turned her head, took the paper and held it really close to her face.

"It keeps changing...I'm afraid you would have to ask aunt Sanya to help you, if you want to read it. I'm not sure how to handle it. Where did you get it?"

"My bag. I was writing my homework on it, I looked away, and when I looked back it was doing this crap."

Stephanie scrunched her face as if trying to remember something.

"I think....there's a spell that does this. It's like a confunding charm only on writing. But like I said, you'll have to see aunt Sanya or another professor to fix it, because I'm pretty sure another student wouldn't know how."

Blaise sighed and took back his parchment.

"I'll be back then."

After Blaise had left, Draco walked over and sat beside Stephanie on the sofa.

"Hey Steph?"

"Wha-mmf.", and for the second time in their relationship she was interrupted by a surprise kiss.

After a moment Sanya came into the commons followed by Blaise and Draco quickly rolled off of Stephanie and grabbed a book. Sanya stopped walking and put her hands on her hips. She sucked on her teeth and asked, "Draco....what are you doing on the floor?"

"Uh, well, I was um...reading and the floor is-uh-comfortable."

Blaise rolled his eyes and snorted at Draco's reply.

"And I am here on the sofa staring at the cobwebs and-good god that's a huge spider!"

"...mm-hmm. I see, and you two are sure that's what you're doing?"

"Uh-yeah."

"Yep."

Sanya continued walking up to the boys dorms and said, "Ch! Do I look like I was born yesterday? Honestly, you two act like you're the only couple ever caught snogging each others brains out! Oh, and for the record, we teachers aren't oblivious to it, we just choose to ignore it."

Sanya entered the boys dorms after Blaise went in and checked that everyone was decent.

"Can you think of anything that is here today, but wasn't before?"

"..."

"Bullocks.", she said in a dejected tone.

Sanya walked slowly down the hallway back to her room. She was humming a song by Rachmaninoff when a voice startled her.

"HOLY MERLIN!"

"Ack! Sorry-sorry-sorry!", Fenrir said quickly, shielding himself in case she hexed him out of surprise.

"What are you doing in here again?! It's dangerous! You could get caught! Especially after curfew, Filch and that cat of his patrol the hallways!", she said speaking in a whisper.

"I wanted to ask your advice on something."

"And it couldn't wait?!"

"No. It involves...you know."

"Oh. Well come on then!", She said walking up to him, turning him around and rushing him to her room.

Once inside, Fenrir started to tell his story, "Voldemort wants me to convince other werewolves to join his side. What should I do?"

"Are you close to them?"

"Of course."

"Well then tell them the truth, that Voldemort sent you to get them to join, but you don't believe in it. That way you went to them."

"I'm pretty sure that if I do that then, when they don't join, Voldemort will have torture set upon them, and then it would be out that I lied."

"Perhaps you could 'try' and convince them, only not bring up strong points of why they should?"

"Sounds like the only way."

"I wish you weren't in this situation."

"You and me both.", he said with a pained expression.

"Would you like for me to speak to Dumbledore for you?"

"I doubt it would be that easy. But I must go now."

"Good luck and be careful!"

"Like I'm on eggshells!", he said over his shoulder as he left.

"So since it was done after a small period of time I figured it was an object that did it. It took forever to find it. Those boys are so messy!"

Sanya was half in a sleepy daze and half awake.

"I see.", Severus said as he looked at Sanya. His hand, that he was also propping his head up on, covered a smile. He watched Sanya as she mistakenly took a spoonful of gravy and put it in her tea, stirred it, then took a sip.

"Yuck! What are they-...", she cut herself off as she realized what she had done. She put the teacup down and pushed it away from her. "You didn't see that."

"Of course not."

"Not one word."

"Me? Never."

"...can't believe I did that.", she paused for a moment, "Okay, yes I can."

Sanya skittered into her classroom, almost late to her own class thanks to the damned staircase. When the bell charms went off to signal the start of the class, she immediately started off on the subject matter of the day.

"Today's lesson is on Necromancy!"


	22. Chapter 22

Ch.22

The class' mouths flopped open at her light tone of voice when she brought it up.

"As you all know, or should, necromancy is the dark art of bringing something dead, back to life. Although technically, it's not so much bringing it back to life as it is reanimating it's corpse. Any questions thus far?"

"So it's like a zombie?"

"Um...not quite. That's a muggle thing where the body gets reanimated by some chemical or such and there isn't anyone to control it. It's complete fiction of course. But here in the wizarding world, Nosferatu-or inferi-are controlled by someone. It takes a lot of concentration and if you lose it...well, your charge or charges go running off and wreak havoc. It doesn't happen very often that someone summons the dead though, due to the difficulty. Plus the fact that you must be one evil nasty-uh...well...you get the picture. Unless you do it by accident. Any other questions?"

"Have you ever experienced it?"

"Uh-well, about that. When I was a child, I woke up one morning. I was very sad. But then I became very freaked the bloody well out when I saw my dog Lucky. You see, Lucky wasn't quite so Lucky anymore. He had died the day before. Apparently I missed him so much that I accidentally brought him back from the grave. I was traumatized for life! That's why I haven't had another dog since....my parents didn't react too well either. Understandable though. They're not dog people."

The students sniggled at her joke towards the end.

Then another student raised their hand and asked Severus, who was sitting down marking papers at Sanya's desk, "Do you know any necromancers Professor?"

He looked thoughtful for a moment and then answered, "No, I did know a necrophiliac, though, but he couldn't stand the awkward silences."

Sanya spit out her tea with a loud 'ppppp', making a cloud of tea mist, and joined the rest of the class in their laughter.

After the class had left Sanya walked over and sat on the stool beside her desk that Severus was seated at.

"I had no idea you had a sense of humor."

"Who said I was joking?"

Sanya spit out her tea again and began choking.

"You did that on purpose!"

"Of course, because I naturally enjoy seeing people spew out tea."

"You just have a thing against me and drinking tea today."

"Yes. It's my sense of foreplay."

At that remark Sanya was so engrossed in giving Severus a weird look that she didn't realize she was dumping her tea all over herself. That is, until it seeped through her dress.

"Gah! Can't I have one drink of my tea?...apparently not. My cup is empty....hmmm. There appears to be a penis in my teacup. It's probably telling me that you're a prick."

"You have no idea how much of one I can be."

"Oh I'm sure....I wonder what Sybil would say about it?"

"Probably that it has something to do with death."

"Hm, death by penis. Who'd have thought it? Never thought I'd hear that phrase."

She glanced over at Severus and saw him with his face in his hand over his eyes, and shaking.

"Are you laughing at me?" Sanya asked incredulously.

"I wouldn't dare laugh at thee, oh mighty Sanya."

"Severus Snape, quit making fun of me or I'll...uh...-" "-Stutter at me?" "SEVERUS!"


	23. Chapter 23

Ch.23

One good thing about Stephanie's condition is that she had now moved on from the quiet emo stage, the bad thing is that she was now in pissed off mode. It especially showed during quidditch practice that evening. The last practice before Christmas break that would start the next day.

Draco and Blaise cringed for what must have been the hundredth time as they watched her fly right up to the field edge and run across the boards in the stands and jump off of them, flying back into the playing field. Her eyes fixed in a harsh glare, her hair whipping around in a wild fashion, resembling flames in a roaring fire, licking at her face at she sped along on her broom.

Draco's knuckles were white because he was clutching the wooden railing so hard. Finally, not being able to take any more pressure on his nerves, he called practice to an end.

On their way back to the castle, one of the worst things that could have happened at that moment, did. Oh, no, wait; it was the worst thing that could have happened.

Being escorted by two aurors to, no doubt, a port key off school grounds was none other than Pansy Parkinson.

The feeling in the air that Draco and Blaise had been in-tuned to that was Stephanie's anger boiling under the surface, now exploded into a eerie, demented foreboding. The air practically crackled with the magical surge.

Stephanie rushed up to where Pansy was and shouted, "I challenge you to a wizard's duel!"

"I except!" Pansy yelled, being cocky that she creamed Stephanie the last match that they had.

The aurors looked at each other but had no choice but to stay out of the affair. After all, it was Stephanie's right to challenge her.

They stood back to back, paced at the count then turned and began the battle. Pansy fired a hex and the meager spell bounced easily off of Stephanie's shield. Stephanies eyes completely black and her ears pointy, her voice echoed by something that sounded...evil. Her body hovered in the air and her loose black hair defying gravity. She shot a ball of negative energy at Pansy and it knocked her back off her feet, causing her to land roughly on the ground. With another hit Stephanie busted her nose. By this time many students had surrounded the fight. When Severus saw what was going on he immediately went to inform Sanya. When he found her and told her, her eyes opened wide and her eyebrows shot up as a gasp escaped her mouth. She then disappeared in a twirl of light and dark. Being a magical creature allowing her to teleport within the walls of the school.

She reappeared before the doors, not wanting to get called out for what she really was.

She stormed out the doors to the fight.

"Move! Get out of my way!" she shouted to the students surrounding, but to no avail. She swept her arms sharply to the sides and the students were moved with such a force that they fell over.

Sanya swiftly walked in front of the bruised, bloody, and most likely scarred Pansy.

"Stephanie! Stop this right now!", Sanya said with a powerful note of command in her voice.

Without any sign of hesitation Stephanie went for the attack anyways, even with Sanya standing in the direct path. Dark matter streaked towards Sanya.

Sanya's expression went from stern to shocked and then formed into an expression with a very clear statement.

'She dares?!'

She formed a claw like figure with her right hand and inclined her head forward and she absorbed the energy into a ball, her ebony hair blowing back off her shoulders as the force of the energy flowed back towards her. With a flick of her petite wrist she sent the energy back at Stephanie and formed it in a ring around her, pinning her arms against her body, trapping her.

Sanya walked up to the struggling form with a cool confidence and power seeping from her pores. She ignored the rude comments and drew a bright cross onto Stephanie's forehead and spoke a word that no one recognized. When that was done a dark orb flew out of Stephanie and away, leaving her unconscious. Without speaking to anyone Sanya walked back inside Hogwarts with Stephanie floating behind her.


	24. Chapter 24

Ch.24

"All she needs is some rest and, unless I'm mistaken, when she wakes up she will be completely back to her normal self." Sanya announced gracefully gliding down from the girl's dorm after depositing Stephanie's unconscious body there.

"You mean...?" Draco and Blaise looked and listened hopefully.

"Mark my words, when you see her tomorrow morning she will be as blond as the day she was born.", she said with her trademark smile, so wide across her face that her eyes were kindly squinty. The warm smile always made people feel better if they were down. Her brown eyes sparkling brightly, vaguely reminiscent of the way snow glimmers under rays of sunlight, right before it melts away and seeps into the earth. Then she swept out of the Slytherin commons.

Sanya strode down the hallway to her room and passed a few giggly girls on the way who seemed to be plotting something, at least if the whispering was any indication.

Sanya jumped backwards in surprise and fell on her butt as a voice startled her in the lone hallway.

"Ok....ow."

"Sorry to startle you.", Severus said with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, no bother. Luckily I fell on this nice, cushy, cold ass stone floor. Yes, I'm doing just fine down here."

"...lovely.", then he paused, "However, I was wondering why you were in such a good mood after today's little fiasco."

"Simple. Stephanie's problem has been cured. She was being possessed by a dark entity, most likely of a poltergeist sort."

"You can perform exorcisms?", Severus asked in shock.

"Of course. It's another Valkyrie trait. Well, of a certain sort, anyways."

"Do I dare question?"

"No.", she said over her shoulder as she walked away.

The next morning Blaise and Draco snuck up to the girls dorms, after confirming that everyone was gone except Stephanie by asking a girl in their grade.

After hearing word Draco ran up the stairs, Blaise walking quickly up after him.

"Stephanie!", Draco exclaimed as soon as he saw her.

"Wut? Merlin's pants! You scared the shit out of me!", Stephanie said before Draco wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug and kissed her forehead before nuzzling his face in her hair.

Stephanie blushed bright red and stood there like a deer in the headlights. Blaise twiddled his thumbs and looked around the room.

"Oh how I love PDA. Makes me feel so warm and cozy inside..._not_."

When the silver trio walked into the great hall it was to arrive at a slightly more excited than usual crowd.

"What's going on I wonder?" Stephanie asked her two comrades.

"That's a good question." Draco answered as he thought of anything he might have missed word of.

"Well, I'm guessing that kid sitting up at the table might have something to do with it.", Blaise said, pointing to guy up front.

After being seated for a while, Dumbledore finally spoke up.

"Attention please! I would like to introduce a new student from Durmstrang. His name is Vincent Mortir."

Vincent stood up and approached the hat.

"Slytherin!", the old hat announced.

If the females in the room would have been staring any harder, Vincent probably would have spontaneously burst into flames.

Stephanie and a few others vaguely heard a guy say to someone as Vincent walked by, "Um...I think I might be gay now."

Vincent was 6 ft 3 and had a nice tan. He had short black hair, and piercing blue eyes. He was wearing a black, long sleeve button up shirt, black jeans that hugged him in all the right places, black boots, and a silver dragon necklace around his strong neck.

After Stephanie shook off her stupor as Vincent sat down at the other end of the table, something dawned on her.

"Heeeey, I know that guy! It took me a while-"

"Because you were busy ogling him-"

"But now I remember who he is.", she said, finishing off with a sharp look at Blaise for his remark.

"And that would be?"

"Well, he used to be the seeker for durmstrangs team. We've...met on occasion."

"Why do I not like the way that that sounds?"

"Nothing like that! It's just, well, Beauxbatons goes against Durmstrang for quidditch season, right? Well, I've been head to head against him before. Which is why it surprised me when Krum replaced him in position on the team. Because...well...on two occasions we lost against them, fault to seeker."

"But...who was your team's seeker at the time?"

"Uhhhh...me."

"But that's impossible!"

"No, beauxbatons recruits' quidditch players at year 2 and I was-"

"No, the fact that he beat you!"

"Well, I'm not the best. I've said that before. He is amazing! That's why you guys always think I'm downplaying myself, it's because of that guy!"

"Is he mean?"

"What? No! He's a babe!-er...doll!..er..he's really nice.", Stephanie tried to take down her idolizing a notch as she watched Draco stab into his food with a scowl on his face.

When Vincent finally had a break in the crowd of girls around him he looked up and saw Stephanie. His face brightened into a leg jellifying grin that sent Stephanie's stomach all a flutter. He lifted his hand and waved at her. She grinned and waved back.

It was at this point that Draco just got up and left, without a word.

"Oh hell.", Blaise said to Stephanie.

"Oh bugger!", Stephanie exclaimed as she hopped up from her seat to pursue her enraged boyfriend.


	25. Chapter 25

Ch.25

Stephanie had to practically run after Draco to keep up with his long strides. A tiny voice in her head was telling her that perhaps she should let Draco cool off a bit but another was telling her that that might be a bad idea, that the extra time would only give him longer to brood and get himself worked up.

"Draco! Stop!", Stephanie shouted, a hint of desperation tingeing her voice.

Draco stopped and turned abruptly, catching Stephanie off guard. She skittered into him and bounced off landing on the stone floor. '_He's like a brick wall. A very attractive brick wall, but ya know'_

_"What?"_, Draco questioned darkly, his eyes a cold emotionless surface.

For the first time since she had met Draco, she finally saw the cold side of him that made the first years skitter away from him. The hair on the back of her neck stood up and she understood that this was a very delicate situation. She stood up clumsily, almost falling over and noticed that when she almost did Draco didn't move to catch her like he normally would have.

"Draco," she reached for his hand but he jerked away, "why are you so upset?"

"Why am I upset? Oh I wonder. 'Oh what a doll! oh look, he's smiling at me, let me grin at him like a bloody idiot and wave like an adoring fan girl!' Bah! Makes me sick!", Draco sniped.

"I was making him feel welcome!" Stephanie argued.

"Why don't you just open your legs?" Draco said bitterly.

Stephanie hauled her hand back and the smack resounded in the empty hallway as her hand made contact with the left side of his face. Tears pricked angrily at her eyes.

"How _dare_ you. How fucking dare you!" Stephanie turned on her heal and left Draco standing unmoving, his head still cocked to the side from the momentum of the hit.

Stephanie was so upset that she literally couldn't see straight. It was like she was in a daze as she made her way to the Slytherin commons. Her magic aura lay thickly about her, so strong that it almost felt like it was stifling her. At least since it was a Sunday she didn't have to contend with classes today.

When she arrived at the commons she took a seat on one of the sofas and curled up into herself to try and calm down. A few moments later Blaise came into the room and he went over to Stephanie's side.

"Hey Stephie", Blaise said in a voice softer than his normally boisterous tone and crouched down next to where stephanie lay on the sofa. He gently pushed a piece of hair behind her ear.

"H-hey."

"Come here.", Blaise said as he lifted her and lay down behind her on the sofa, cradling her in his arms, "Everything's going to work itself out, just settle down."

Around an hour or two later Draco made his way into the commons. Blaise' head rested on top of Stephanie's as the two slept peacefully on the green velvet sofa. As Draco stood and watched Stephanie sleep he felt his heart clench. He had pretty much regretted what he said to her as soon as the words left his mouth. He thought about saying something but decided that they needed some space.

The following day Blaise and Stephanie went out on the grounds to enjoy the random day of warm weather in the fall.

They walked, arms linked, at a smooth pace. The breeze gently fluffed their hair as they made their way to a tree. They sat in the sun speckled shade, leaning against the large trunk, and just sat beside each other soaking in the sounds of nature and laughter from their classmates.

"Remember...when things used to be so simple? When the most we had to worry about was staying out after it got dark?" Blaise said after a moment.

"Yeah, it was nice. Now we have another dark war upon us and our emotions run rampant."

"I bet it's the hormones."

Stephanie looked at him and blinked a couple times before laughing, Blaise joining in.

She looked at him, really looked at him, for the first time in a long time.

His brown hair moved in the breeze, hinted with shades of gold. She remembered when it was cut short and darker.

His brown eyes shining amber in the sunlight, a beautiful color that she hadn't noticed before.

The round face that he had as a child was now sharper and more pronounced and his golden skin contrasted with his white-toothed smile.

He had grown up and she didn't even realize it.

"Stephanie?"

She flushed as she realized that she had been staring at him and thinking about him in ways that did not read as 'friend'.

"Are you okay?", he asked, the smile dropped from his face as it filled with concern.

"I-I'm fine! I gotta go! Sorry!", she blurted out before she quickly stood up, stumbled a bit, and then ran back to the castle.

Blaise reached out to her about to say as she was leaving, but then withdrew with a grimace. He sighed and leaned back against the tree, resting his head against the strong trunk. He laid his left hand on his upraised leg, his eyes half closed glittering slits. He let out another sigh and gently bumped his head against the trunk before closing his eyes to think better.

Stephanie was still running to the castle when she heard someone say something about 'a fight going down in the pitch'. Curiosity got the best of Stephanie and she ran past the castle to the field. She made her way through the crowd and gaped at the scene in front of her.

Draco and Vincent rolled around on the ground throwing punches at each other. Vincent finally managed to grab Draco's wrists and pin him down. Vincent looked up and spotted Stephanie.

"Don't just stand there!"

"Draco! What the hell are you doing?! You jealous twit!"

At those words all the fight went out of him and he sent Vincent a glare, signaling that he wouldn't do anything more.

"Promise me you won't do anything like this again.", Stephanie said, an angry glint in her eyes.

"Fine. As long as he doesn't try anything funny with you."

Vincent gaped at the remark and then started laughing, the sound making the ladies swoon.

Draco glared at him.

"What the bloody hell is so funny?"

When Vincent's laughter finally died down he said with the laughter still in his eyes "I would be more apt to try something funny with you."

"...wut?"

Ch.X

Due to high levels of stress in the students and teachers, Dumbledore decided to have the teachers and students write down how their lives have been of late and have a few counselors analyze them.

When the papers arrived the counselors began to make their ways through the large stacks and every so often would come across a rather interesting entry.

Sanya Silvant Slytherine-Romaine

Honestly, when I heard of this I could not help but think 'What? You want me to write a bloody encyclopedia?' because lately I feel…a bit fed up.

It's not that anything…particularly horrible is going on in my life at the moment, just many MANY annoying things. Besides, you know your life is heading in a strange direction when you can have a conversation like this:

"Ya know aunt Sanya, I think you and I are a lot alike when it comes to relationships."

"What? You have a werewolf lusting after you too?"

"Uhhhh, no."

I suppose I'm glad that my niece doesn't have a werewolf trying to…well, I'm not entirely sure _what_ he's trying to do, but point being, my niece is perfectly normal.

Not only is there the werewolf issue, but I think I'm falling for an ass-hat. Really, all we do is bicker it seems. Does this make me a masochist? But he's incredibly intelligent and, despite my personality, I find myself liking the dark kind of look. But again, I somewhat feel like my logic has been tossed out the window. On another note, I hardly know anything about him and yet he knows my deepest darkest secret….well, my second deepest secret.

I feel like I keep babbling but it's just like I'm overflowing with random junk.

Despite my being here for a few months already, I have yet to organize all my potions and ingredients.

Also, oh joyous day, I seem to have lost Monty. This is unfortunate. I hope he's still in my room but I don't believe he is because I've called out for him but I did not receive an answer. I hope he doesn't get hurt by a student. Don't be alarmed, Monty isn't a person or anything, he's just my pet python.

The counselor looked up from the scroll and blinked a few times. Then he looked down around his feet and on the floor for an aforementioned pet escapee and relaxed upon seeing it was clear of any reptiles. He then proceeded to pick up the next scroll.

Severus Tobias Snape

I do not enjoy complaining to others about my life. That being said, there is a woman who is absolutely driving me batty. I think, and therein lies the problem. In a strange way I enjoy the bickering matches we have. I suppose that's my sadistic side showing through. She _is_ rather intelligent however. Though I tend to be skeptical when it comes to the character of people, I find myself envious of her. But I can't feel that there is a side of her that I am missing.

The counselor, once again, looked up and blinked a few times, then snickered to his self.

Stephanie Sorza Slytherine-Romaine

I have never once thought that I had a boring life. From the crazy antics of my aunt, to my crazy best friend, to my crazy fortune, but then I came to this school. Turns out that I didn't know what crazy was. But I guess it's a good kind of crazy.

I have a wonderful boyfriend. Most of the time. He's a bit possessive, but then again, so am I. That's about the only normal thing that I have going on in my life.

I went through a rather crazy scene with a nasty little…_witch_, and went through a rough patch.

My best friend has been acting a little off lately. Things that other people wouldn't notice, but things that I do. I've known him since we were babies, so go figure. It bothers me but he's nothing if not tough, so I'm sure that whatever it is he'll make it through.

Blaise Zambini-

The counselor read the one solitary line-

I'm a _freak_.


	26. Chapter 26

Ch. 26

'Slam! EEK!'

Severus sat quietly at his podium, perched upon his stool, partaking of his normal daily activity of grading papers.

'Slam! EEK!'

Severus' finger twitched at the sound causing a small spot of ink to plop from the quill onto the scroll, making him pause a moment to recollect himself before continuing to peruse the essay.

'Slam! EEK!'

"For Salazar's sake! What on earth are you doing?!", Severus snapped at Sanya.

"There's a spider!", she said glancing up quickly before looking back at the spider to make sure she knew where it was.

"Then kill it."

"I'm trying! It's a jumping-Slam! EEK!-spiderrrrr!", Sanya said making yet another attempt to squash the elusive spider and, yet again, squealing and jumping away.

"If you wouldn't hesitate-"

"But what if it jumps on me?", Sanya said in a rather whiny voice.

Severus looked at Sanya as if she had just declared she was eloping with a llama to the Bahamas. Honestly, the woman was immortal and had a mass of magic at the flick of a finger, and she was frightened of a small spider? He rolled his eyes before pushing himself away from his podium and strolling over to where she stood. He removed his wand from his cloak and deep fried the eight legged spider with an incendiary spell. Sanya watched as its little legs curled up.

"That was kind of cruel.", she said somewhat nonchalantly.

Severus gave her another look.

"What? Why do you keep looking at me like I'm bonkers?"

"Well…", he said preparing to explain.

"Finish that sentence, Severus Snape, and I _will_ make sure that you regret it."

"I highly doubt you would do anything of that particular nature.", Severus replied dryly, going back and sitting on his stool to resume his routine.

Sanya turned to him biting the inside of her cheeks because she had a sneaking suspicion that if she didn't, she was going to say something unpleasant.

"At any rate, what are you still doing here? Class was over an hour ago."

"Well, I wanted to finish my book first, and then I went on a spider hunt. I really should be going now though." Sanya said before she walked out the door.

Not even a minute later Sanya opened the door again.

"Silly question, but you haven't seen a python around here anywhere have you?"

"I can't say that I have.", Severus said without looking up from the paper he was currently grading. The door closed and Severus paused and looked up with a befuddled look on his face, having realized what she had said.

"I've hardly seen you put that thing down. What is it that you find so engrossing about that book?", Severus asked from his place beside Sanya at the dinner table.

"This book?", she said looking up from the aforementioned book. She then proceeded to hold it up with a cat that ate the snitch face. "Ohhh, nothing much too interesting about it. It's just the diary of Salazar Slytherin."

Sanya had actually managed to get the legendary second eyebrow to rise.

"How did you manage to procure such an item?"

"A perk of being the heir of Slytherin.", she said reaching for the spaghetti. Minerva spoke up from the other side of Severus.

"Oh Sanya, you don't want to eat that."

"Does it taste bad?"

"No, it has rather undesired repercussions."

"Like what?"

"The runs, deary."

"But…it's spaghetti…it can't possibly be that bad."

Severus and Minerva looked at one another before Severus spoke.

"Let me put this in terms that you would understand. Have you ever seen 'The Exorcist'?"

"Of course."

"It's kind of like that."

Sanya made a horrified face.


	27. Chapter 27

Ch.27

At the mention of The Exorcist at dinner, Sanya felt compelled to watch a horror movie. So, through a very complex process and much debacle, managed to get her tv to work in her room in Hogwarts.

She was seated upon her plush sofa, with the television and a small light orb behind her near her bed the only providers of light. She was sitting rigidly with a large plastic bowl full of popcorn in the midst of her crossed legs.

Sanya's eyes were glued to the television as the heroine crept through the night, on guard for the evil spirit that was sure to be around in that graveyard and attack her. That was what Sanya's horror logic told her, anyways. Sanya kept habitually reaching in the popcorn bowl. She felt like her hair was standing up and-

Knock knock!

Sanya jumped so hard that she managed to jar some of the popcorn out of the bowl and onto her lap. She paused the movie and got up, setting the bowl on the table in front of her.

"Merlin's foot!", Sanya said right before she opened the door.

"I hardly see how I compare to a medieval wizards appendage."

"So what caused you to emerge from your lurking in the bat cave?", she asked on her way back to her burrowed out spot on the sofa, leaving it to Severus to come in and close the door.

"I have some questions in regards to a potion. I would like to get your opinion, however flaky it may be."

"Ah. Have at it.", she said, placing the popcorn bowl back in her lap and resuming the movie.

Severus talked on getting, clearly, noncommittal responses. Severus could easily tell that Sanya wasn't paying attention to a word he said. After a couple minutes the grunts of response ceased as the heroine in the movie once again entered a perilous situation. Sanya became so engrossed that she actually stopped eating. The heroine slowly approached the curtain that the villain was sure to be hiding behind. She reached for it and A HAND CLAMPED DOWN ON HER SHOULDER!

"EEEYAAAAAH~!", Sanya hunkered down in her spot trying to get away from the villains-Severus'-hold on her shoulder. She breathed heavily, her heart pounding in her ears as popcorn confetti rained down around her. While she was regrouping, she looked down in her hand to see that she had crushed the life out of some poor hapless popcorn pieces. She scowled and threw it back into the bowl as she turned around to confront the, in-betweens' catching his breath, loudly laughing wizard behind her.

"All right, point proven. You now have my full fledged attention. You asshat.",she said as she crossed her arms and glared at him for all she was worth. A look that would normally stifle any laughter on the spot. Sanya learned an important lesson. It is very hard for one to look menacing in chibi samurai chick pajama bottoms and bits of popcorn stuck in one's hair. _Very_ hard indeed. But that did not stop one Sanya Slytherin-Romaine from trying-and try she did.

"I'm sorry, I find it rather difficult to feel inclined to be intimidated by you in such ridiculous bottoms."

"She doesn't find them ridiculous.", Sanya said, referring to the samurai girl, menacing look still in place.

"Oh? What, pray tell, does she think?"

"She's angry. Very angry."

Severus momentarily looked up and then frowned,

"What the bloody hell is that?"

"Hm?", she turned around to look at the tv screen, "It's an evil warlock." She then, pointedly, turned and looked straight at Severus.

"Evil? Hardly."

She raised an eyebrow and sucked on her teeth, definitely not buying it at that moment.

Music played from a stereo in an area of the dungeons. More specifically, the Slytherin commons. A seventh year, along with the work of some heavy duty veela magic, managed to put up a silencing charm along the walls to keep the sound from leaking out into the hallways.

The students, strictly upperclassmen only; perhaps a select few 4th years allowed as well, danced along to the music playing from the stereo.

As the talk about 'you know who' escalated, the tension began getting near unbearable. So as a means to wind down and loosen up, a seventh year suggested a party of sorts. The rest of the snakes obviously agreed.

The current song genre was techno. After fast dancing had worn almost everyone out, someone yelled that they had something they could listen to. They came running down the stairs from the boys dorm with a CD held up in their hand. They slipped the CD in the player and pressed play. Everyone instantly recognized who was playing and got excited.

"Oh my god! I haven't heard them in ages! They're so freaking amaaaazinng!", so girl squealed.

A conversation carried on next to the silver trio that they could distinctly overhear.

"Whatever happened to them? It's like they vanished or something."

"I miss Eighth Deadly Sin. Even if they did do muggle song covers. They were freaking awesome!"

A song came on that Stephanie had felt compelled to sing along to and soon enough the dance party had turned into a karaoke party.

"I'm next!", Blaise shouted after the song had finished.

"Oh no you're _not_!", Stephanie and Draco chorused, having been subjected to Blaise' singing on a few unfortunate occasions.

A few of the other snakes sang, most of them doing-like Stephanie-a fair job.

Then, to everyone's surprise, Vincent stood up on the stage-table-and gripped the microphone on the stand. Everyone was practically holding their breath to see how he sounded because anything about him was something exciting due to his elusive nature. Besides, he was the newest member to their school. The most anyone knew about him was that he was from Durmstrang, he was hot, could kick arse at quidditch, and he was gay. Hardly a life story.

The lyrics started and everyone in the room was completely shocked. Not only could he freaking sing like a god, he could apparently speak Japanese! Not to mention his stage presence. Although, Stephanie believed, it couldn't be very hard to have stage presence with looks like those. He was like a prince-a homosexual, Japanese singing prince. That was a perfect sum of Vincent.

His movements mesmerized everyone as the flames from the fireplace seemed to flare more behind him, as if to try and match his magnificence. Vincent's icy blue eyes held a sparkle as he sang. His red silk shirt fluttered and his midriff came peeking into view. In normal everyday school life, Vincent was your average super hottie. But give the boy a crowd and stage and he turned into a _God_.

After the song ended, Vincent put up the microphone and gave a short bow towards the cheers and clapping.

Naturally, after an act like that, no one wanted to follow, so the snakes went back to their dancing. Thankfully, Eighth Deadly Sin did not do techno, so that allowed them to carry on their party late into the night. Unfortunately that also left them doing rather impressive zombie impersonations the next day, but it was so worth it.


	28. Chapter 28

Ch.28

On their way back from the Great hall, Severus and Sanya found themselves walking back to the dungeons together as they often did after a meal.

"Something that has persisted to vex me, I understand that it isn't necessary for you but, why do you not carry your wand with you?"

"Ah, that's easy enough to answer.", she said as they pause, waiting for the staircase in front of them to move into place. "I can't."

"Pardon?"

"I'm not allowed to."

"Why not?"

Sanya made a show of looking at the other students around and blatantly ignoring his question in hopes that he would get the hint.

"Ah, I see."

When they arrived back in the dungeons which were, for the moment, clear of students Severus brought the question back up.

"Mm.", Sanya said with a piece of butterscotch in her mouth and made a 'Follow me' type motion as she went to her room in the tower.

Sanya walked over to a wall and then walked _through_ it. When she emerged from the concealed doorway she was carrying a rather large and completely new looking book. The book's cover was a solid white engraved leather. The sides of the book glowed with a pearlescent light, indicative of a magical seal. She set it down forcefully on the countertop below the cabinets.

"What is-"

"The Valkyrie handbook."

"You mean to inform me that what that book contains is-"

"-all you could ever want to know and more about Valkyries."

"Would. You. _Stop_…interrupting me."

"My apologies."

Sanya reached her hand towards the front cover of the book and then hesitated before putting her palm flat against it. When her hand touched it she hissed and bent down in pain before the seal around the book disappeared and she snatched her hand back as the cover flipped open.

"What was all that about?"

"Well, we're very strict about keeping hush hush. It's much how you would imagine we are to muggles. Only a Valkyrie can open these. Consider it extra security measures."

"I'm sure there are ways around that."

"If it felt like you were being caught on fire every time you attempted to open this book, would you repeatedly try and fumble your way about trying to break the seal?"

"Hm. Probably not."

"Precisely."

In a clear and concise manner Sanya voiced the words 'Restriction Levels'.

The book slammed open to the requested section.

"Read that for your answer."

Severus looked down at the pristine page.

Any Valkyrie, dark or light, has a seal placed upon them. The seal acts as insurance to insure that their powers are greatly restricted. It is primarily to keep Valkyries from overstepping their boundaries whilst they are in the wizarding world, and especially whilst in the muggle world.

As soon as one becomes a Valkyrie, they may never use their wand that they acquired as a witch. Breaking this rule can range from stripping of position or, in a very severe but rare situation, death.

Valkyries have placed upon them three restriction levels.

The first restriction level is to keep a Valkyrie from removing the seals without the permission of the overlords. In order to receive permission the Valkyrie must send in a written appeal.1

The second restriction level is a seal to bind the Valkyries magic. It does not completely bind one's magic, just a considerable amount.

The third and final restriction is permission to use standard issue Valkyrie wand. Permission by the overlords is very rarely permitted to remove this seal. Permission is only granted in dire situations, typically of war.

Severus looked up from where he was reading to find Sanya standing before him eating some sort of chicken dish with chop sticks from a Chinese take-out box.

"…where did you get that?"

"There's this kick arse Chinese food restaurant in Shangai. They have the best curry chicken."

"You went to China while I was reading?"

"Yeah. What of it?", she said between taking bites.

"The apparition barrier, for starters."

"I can get through it. I get a terrible headache for a few seconds though."

Severus just stood there with his usual expression on his face. The woman's powers were restricted and yet she still managed to get through the barrier that had prevented anyone from apparating in and out for centuries. Severus couldn't help but wonder to himself if Sanya would ever cease to amaze him.

"Furthermore, how can you be hungry? We just had dinner and, if memory serves, you practically cleared out a side of the table by yourself. It's a wonder that you don't weigh half a ton."

Sanya gave him a flat look and said in just as flat of a tone, "All the magic messes with my metabolism. Basically its super accelerated and if I don't eat like a pig, I get very weak. Worst case scenario, I could very well die. My immortality has its weak points....you arse.", she added to the end of her statement as she sniffled in mock hurt and turned away."


	29. Chapter 29

Ch.29

Lately, Stephanie couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong with Blaise. Sure, he was saying the same things that he always said and doing the things that he always does, but his actions had seemed strained. So when he got up to go outside and didn't come back after a while Stephanie went to investigate.

Stephanie found herself going to the quidditch pitch to find Blaise after she was sure she had searched the grounds of Hogwarts everywhere else.

Upon entering the Slytherin locker room she made out the sound of the showers running and sobbing. She ran into the showers and found Blaise, nude and on his knees, his arms wrapped around himself and he was hunched over. He looked up, shocked when Stephanie entered.

"Please, just leave me alone.", he whispered as he looked away ashamedly.

She walked over to where he was and went to wrap her arms around him but he shied away from her touch.

"Blaise, what's wrong?"

In the same sad, broken tone he whispered in reply, "I can't tell you, please just _leave me alone_."

"I'm sorry, but you know I can't do that.", she said ignoring his protest and wrapping her arms around him. He sobbed brokenly into her now soaked robe and uniform. "_Please_, just tell me what's wrong."

Her fingers were entwined with a few locks of his wet hair and her face nestled beside his. His tan skin and her pale skin tone contrasting.

"You'll hate me.", he whispered against her collarbone.

"Of course I won't, don't be ridiculous."

"I love Draco."

"Pardon?", Stephanie said in surprise, not entirely sure she had heard right.

"I love him, but I love you too."

If it had been anyone else who had told her that she would have been jealous and probably just brushed off the comment about her. But _Blaise_. Her _best_ friend. She almost felt as if she could cry herself.

"Oh Blaise, I'm so so sorry."

His sobbing dimmed for a moment. "You're not mad?"

"How can I be? It's such a horrible situation to be in. I just-I'm so sorry Blaise."

His momentary resolve broke again and he managed to sob out, "I feel like such a freak. I'm such a freak."

They heard a door shut to the lockers and their heads snapped up and Draco swept into the doorway. He took in Blaise' state.

"What the bloody hell is going on?", he said as he traipsed over to the two, turned off the shower, and wrapped his cloak around Blaise.

"I-", Blaise started to let out before he shook his head and the tears started again.

"Shh, it's alright mate. But we should be getting back to the commons. It's almost dark out."

Stephanie nodded and Blaise's sobs quieted down and they slowly rose to their feet. Blaise went into a stall to dress his self and came out wiping his eyes on his robe sleeves.

When the silver trio arrived at the commons Stephanie walked up to Blaise and wrapped her arms around him and hugged him. When she pulled away she put a hand on each side of his face and looked him in the eyes.

"Are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah. Eventually.", he said with a watery smile.

Blaise had just crawled into bed after changing into boxers when his bed curtains were yanked open. Blaise nearly jumped out of his skin in surprise.

"Draco! What the hell are you doing?", he said as he watched Draco make himself at home at the foot of his bed. Draco crossed his legs and arms, facing straight at Blaise.

"I have no idea what is going on with you, so spill."

"Guh!", Blaise was suddenly very terrified.

"Look mate, I've known you since I was in diapers. You can tell me anything."

"Anything?"

"Well, if you tell me you and Stephanie were doing more that comfort hugging in the showers earlier I might react badly. But short of that, anything."

"Oh, that's too bad then."

"Smart arse."

"I try."

"Also, don't try and change the subject."

Blaise' stomach tied up in knots again. He took a deep breath. 'Hell, I might as well.'

"IloveyouandSteph."

"…I didn't know you could speak that fast. Could you please repeat that? A bit slower this time, perhaps."

"I-guh-I love you and Steph."

"We love you too. No Homo."

"No. Nope. Not-I mean…"

"Oh. _Oh_.", Draco said as realization set in."…so you mean?"

"All homo."

"Hm.", Draco said as he sat at the foot of Blaise' bed completely speechless doing a spot on imitation of a statue.

"..well, g'night.", Draco said as he got up and walked over to his bed.

Blaise settled down under the covers. 'Well, that could have been better...could have been a lot worse too.'

"You're still my best mate, and I know I'm hard to resist, but please _do_ try your best not to have your wicked way with me while I sleep."

Blaise laughed full heartedly for the first time in a while. He closed his eyes to go to sleep knowing that maybe things really would be okay.

Sanya sat down with a cup of tea when Stephanie came sauntering into her room.

"Yes?"

Stephanie just blurted the first thing that came to mind, "Blaise is bi.", She said in a somewhat stunned shock.

"…and?", Sanya said showing no change of emotion whilst sipping her tea, as if Stephanie had just said a remark about the weather.

"That's it? That's your reaction? Let me guess, you already knew."

"Well, it's not that I knew per say. I suspected it; however, I figured he was, at the very least bi-curious."

"…how do you figure these things out?"

Sanya just smiled while taking a sip of her tea, her brown eyes twinkling.


	30. Chapter 30

Ch.30

Sanya stood at the front of her classroom, leaning against her desk and waiting for all of her students to enter.

When the students sat down and the door was closed, Sanya picked up a deck of cards that she had sitting on her desk behind her.

"Today, I'm going to show you something rather nifty. But first, Mr. Burkley, pick a card-any card-but do not tell me. Now, pass it on to everyone, just so we all know-with the exception of my self-what card you chose."

When the message had been passed along to everyone Sanya continued on with her demonstration. She made the deck of cards hover and motioned her right hand to the left, causing the cards to flit to that side at a fast pace. Then, quick as a whip, snapped her right hand back to the deck and halted the motion. She snatched the card up in between her pointer and index finger and flipped it around so that the card face was to the class. She watched as several of the students openly gaped.

"Any guesses as to how I knew?"

"You over heard someone! You had to have."

"I asure you, I did not."

"I bet she read our minds.", one student said and laughed, passing it off as a joke.

Sanya turned to the student and smirked.

"Actually, yes, I did read your minds Mr. Todd. Have you heard of occlumency? This is what I shall be teaching you all today. I find it a very important skill to possess; otherwise one will find their secrets being spread about. Now, for some, this won't be too difficult, but to most it will be rather taxing. Still easier to learn than legilimens, however. But that explanation is best saved for another time.", she said taking a breath.

"There are a few different ways to guard one's mind, but I find the easiest method is to force a substitute thought forward. What I mean by this, is-when I cast legilimens on you-you will find yourself experience past memories. When that happens, focus on some other thought-and think of nothing but that, and I mean truly really concentrate on that thought. Also, as a side note, it helps if you can avoid the casters eyes, but for the purpose of this exercise I want eye contact. Now, let's begin, shall we?", she finished with a smile.

The silver trio sat down in their transfigurations class in their normal seats. Vincent came up and sat beside Blaise and smiled at the three.

"Hello."

He only earned one enthusiastic greeting as Draco was busy giving him a slightly dirty look and Blaise was looking at him suspiciously. Vincent waved off the look Draco gave him and questioned Blaise.

"What?"

"I don't trust you."

Vincent snorted. "You wouldn't be the first one.", he said with a bitter look on his face.

Stephanie and Blaise gave him a questioning look.

"Nothing.", he said and waved them off.

Sanya slumped into her seat at the professors table in the Great Hall.

"Merlin's Salazar.", she said, plopping her head on the table-top.

"Is there any particular reason why you look like a limp newt?"

"Occlumency."

"What about it?"

"Teaching it."

"To whom?"

"My class."

"… Are you daft?"

"Little bit. Right now my head feels like a potato….a mashed one. Also, I learned more about the students than I ever wanted to know."

"I suspect that means that the lessons did not go so well?"

Sanya sat up and turned her head and gave him a dry look.

"Regretting your decision to teach it to them then?"

"You read my mind."


	31. Chapter 31

Phantomkizz: WARNING! A bit of boy love! Just a little baby smidge. No smexing. No kissing yet either. Lolz

Ch.31

Severus stopped dead in his tracks when he entered Sanya's room. The air was absolutely _freezing_!

"Why, pray tell, is it like a meat locker in here?"

"I can only assume that it has something to do with the tower.", she said shivering from under her black comforter that she had ripped from her bed, the corner of the comforter was flopped over her head.

"Heating charm?"

"I did."

"…really?"

"It didn't work too well."

"Obviously….do you have any veritaserum? I ran out."

"S-sure.", she got up from her sofa and walked over to her cabinets to pick out a spherical glass container. She handed it to Severus.

He looked at it for a moment and then turned it upside down and watched as the potion inside stayed at the bottom, frozen solid. He tilted his head.

"…well, that's different.", Sanya said, somewhat amused.

The Slytherin trio plopped down for dinner. After Blaise finished eating he got up to go to the bathroom and Vincent promptly slid over to Stephanie in a rather suave movement.

"So, how does one go about seducing your friend?"

Stephanie coughed and spluttered on the pumpkin juice that she had been taking a drink of.

"…I suppose that was a bit too sudden?"

Stephanie looked at him with watery eyes while she dabbed the juice off of her robes.

"Right.", he said clearing his throat.

Sanya woke up feeling warm and cozy. She snuggled back into the warmth. Then she froze as her sleep addled mind caught up. '_Warmth_?'

She slowly turned her head over her shoulder, afraid of what she would find. Then she relaxed with a flat expression on her face.

She smacked Fenrir on the arm as hard as she could. He startled awake.

"What the hell are you doing?!", she whispered vehemently.

"Sleeping. What the fuck does it look like?", he mumbled as he rolled over and proceeded to go back to sleep.

Sanya gaped at his audacity and then scowled.

"Not in my bed, you're not!", she yelled.

"You were cold. Now shut up and go back to sleep."

Sanya had to admit he had a point, but that didn't mean that he had to take it upon himself to become her personal heating charm.

"…you could have asked. & don't tell me to shut up."

"I said go to sleep.", he said shooting a sleeping spell over his shoulder causing her to suddenly fall asleep.

Fenrir really hoped that he woke up before she did.

Draco and Blaise found themselves warming up to Vincent as he joined them in their little circle around the coffee table in the commons.

"So why exactly did you transfer here?", Stephanie asked quizzically.

"Well, with things with you-know-who heating up…let's just say Durmstrang really isn't the best place to be right now."

"And this is?", Draco questioned, "This is the first place the dark lord is going to strike once he comes back into power. For both Dumbledore and Potter. It's common knowledge."

"I would rather be on the good side than the bad."

"True….just curious, but did the sorting hat automatically suggest Slytherin?"

"Well, it was actually split."

"Between?"

"Slytherin and Gryffindor."

The Slytherin trio pulled a face.

"Did you think I was actually serious? Merlin!"

"Great Salazar dude, don't joke like that! You'll get hexed into next week.", Blaise spoke up after the three had relaxed again.

"I have kind of noticed the tension between the two."

"Too goody goody."

"Indeed. Even though our Stephanie here managed to make friends with one. But really, what was the other house?"

"Ravenclaw. I guess it makes sense though. Because Slytherin traits are-"

"Sly", Draco said with a smirk.

"Cunning", Blaise supplied.

"and ambitious", Stephanie finished.

"Yeah, that.", Vincent said and the four laughed together.

Blaise asked Stephanie and Draco if he would go outside while the weather was having a heat-wave but they had homework to do because of quidditch practice.

Vincent spoke up from where he sat with his legs crossed. "I could go with?"

Blaise looked uncertain for a moment but agreed none-the-less.

After a walk of uncomfortable silence the two flopped back on a hillside basked in the sunlight.

More silence passed between the two before Blaise broke the silence.

"I have a rather personal question to ask."

"Yeah?", Vincent said looking at him out of the corner of his eye.

"How did you know?"

"uh…know _what_, exactly?"

"You know that you were uh…."

"Gay?"

"Yeah."

"Well it wasn't like I just woke up one day and was all 'Oh hey! I fancy blokes! Nay to boobs and yay to penis!'"

"I know that!"

"Then what do you mean?"

"Like…when did you realize it?"

"Basically when I kissed girls and nothing happened. No spark no…_nothing_. I might as well have been mowing the lawn."

"…that's a horrible analogy. Are you sure you were almost put in Ravenclaw?"

Vincent lifted his head and turned to look at Blaise.

"Do you really want my advice?"

"Well, I'm sure as hell not going to ask anyone else. I don't really know of anyone else to ask anyways."

"What makes you think you're gay anyways?"

"Well…I love my two best friends but I'm not sure if which gender it is I really like. Like…is one of them just an exception? If so, which one?", Blaise huffed out after he was finished and ran his hands through his hair.

Once again a silence fell between the two.

"…close your eyes."

"What?"

"Relax. You want to find out if you swing the other way?"

"Yes but…", Blaise swallowed thickly.

Vincent leaned over him and Blaise did as he was told and his eyelids closed. Vincent placed his hand gently beside his face and leaned down far enough that his bangs touched Blaise' forehead and his breath ghosted over his lips. Vincent looked down at him with half lidded eyes.

Meanwhile Fenrir jolted awake as a vile of some random liquid was thrust into his mouth and he was forced to swallow.

After having a coughing fit he managed to choke out, "What the hell was that?!"

"Let's just say you should probably not stray too far from a bathroom anytime soon.", she said holding the bottle in up in her right hand with a smirk on her face.

His eyes got large and then his stomach grumbled and he clutched it.

"That's a low blow!", he said as he hopped up and began running down the stairs.

"You didn't think I would let you get off easy for putting me to sleep, did you?"

"Why? WHY did I have to fall in love with such a person?!"


	32. Chapter 32

Ch.32

Blaise' hands gripped handfuls of grass by his sides as Vincent's breath ghosted across his face.

"Are you sure you want this?", he said dragging his thumb softly across Blaise' bottom lip.

"I…think so.", Blaise whispered out.

Vincent hesitated for only a moment before he sealed their lips together in a soft kiss.

As a jolt rushed through his body, Blaise knew he had his answer.

Stephanie was laying on the floor with her feet propped up on Draco's lap.

"I'm _not_ helping you with your homework."

"But Stephanie-"

"Don't 'but Stephanie' me. It's not my fault that you chose to sleep like the dead during Arithmancy."

"But Stephanie", he said as he lay down with his head resting on her stomach and stared up at her.

She placed a hand on each side of his face. "I love you, but no.", she said releasing his face with a huff and putting her head back down.

Draco was about to protest again when Blaise and Vincent came back into the commons, laughing jovially.

This was greeted by two pairs of blond raised eyebrows.

"Have a good time?"

"I'm gay!", Blaise said happily as he and Vincent tromped up to the boys dormitories.

"…didn't we already discuss this?", Draco asked Stephanie.

"Quite. But who knows what goes on in that little head of his."

There was a pause and-"St-" "I am _not_ helping you."

Draco sulked quietly to himself.

Stephanie huffed and flopped listlessly on the floor.

"Alright, fine!", she said, defeated.

Draco smirked.

"Thought you would come around."

Fenrir came stumbling back into Sanya's room still holding his stomach and with a rather sick look on his face.

"You evil, vile woman.", Fenrir groaned out.

Sanya was startled to see him returning to her room.

"You came back?"

"Yes, I have some information that I think you would like to know."

"Oh?"

"If I were you, I would send in an appeal to have your seals removed pronto."

"I already have, but are things building up that fast?"

Fenrir looked at her with a grave expression.

"Soon.", he said before sweeping out of her room.

Later that evening Sanya couldn't help but keep running over Fenrir's words in her mind. 'Soon.'

She was seated at the window seat with the windows open, piddling with a coin in her hand. She kept mindlessly running it back and forth across her slim fingers, the light from outside casting a soft orange glow across everything as the sun set.

Sanya was so deep in her musings that she didn't stir when there was a knock at her door.

Severus walked in to inform her of a meeting that Dumbledore was holding for faculty, no doubt in preparation for the war that was ahead of them.

Severus waited idly for a response from her, but when she spoke it wasn't what he expected.

"You can feel it in the air, can't you?", she said as a breeze from outside blew her hair gently, her eyes still not leaving the grounds outside. There was something eerily calm about the scene. He didn't need to ask what she meant, but she continued on anyways.

"There's a strange tension in the air. It keeps getting worse and worse, I fear I may have made my decision too late."

"What decision?"

"I sent in an appeal to have _all_ my limits removed. I just hope I sent it in soon enough. It's so…frustrating. Just waiting for it."

"…are you afraid?"

"Yes and no. I'm not afraid for myself, but Stephanie, and Blaise…and the students."

"You do not fear death?"

"Voldemort has done far worse than death."

Her words hung heavily in the air.

Severus rocked on his heels and was about to leave when he decided to do something that he should not have done.

While Sanya's guard was down, he looked into her mind.


	33. Chapter 33

Ch.33

A woman in a wedding dress sat on her knees surrounded by deatheaters and their master.

"_Why_? Why are you doing this?", the woman sobbed, sounding somewhere near hysterics.

"Isn't it obvious?", the dark lord spoke, "You've been had."

"You betrayed me?", the woman said to one deatheater in particular.

"Betrayed you? No, I never had any allegiance to you in the first place.", the man said with a snear. "I've been conning you this whole time, and you trailed along like the dog you are."

"Join me, and I'll make all your problems go away.", Voldemort said, trying to cajole her into joining his ranks. After all, who wouldn't want an all powerful being on their side?

She was curled in upon herself, broken. When Voldemort spoke her sobbing motion stopped and she looked up with bitter hatred evident on her face. It was then that Severus recognized the woman to be _Sanya_.

"_Never_.", she spat out.

"Very well…imperio!"

Then everything went black.

The next scene opened up to a wrecked house and Sanya staring down at two lifeless bodies and a child crying in the background.

Meanwhile Sanya was experiencing Severus' most secret memories, the mind link working as a bridge between their minds.

Severus reeled back from the memories.

A palpable silence hung in the air. Angry tears formed in Sanya's eyes and she turned her slightly bowed head to him and looked him dead in the eye.

"I think you should leave.", she ground out.

Severus dare not protest and left as she requested, knowing that he deserved whatever scorn that she now harbored towards him. He could only hope that she had it in her heart to forgive him.

Stephanie was reclined back in the green leather sofa in the commons with Draco's head in her lap. He was dozing lightly. She was running her fingers through his hair and nearly jumped a mile when Vincent crept and popped up beside her behind the sofa.

"Help me!", he whispered desperately.

"Merlin's ass! Stop startling me!"

"I don't do it on purpose! But I need help!"

"With what?"

"Well…I'm not really sure where Blaise and I stand."

"Then ask him."

"…I'm afraid."

"Of what?"

"What if he doesn't like me?"

"What are we? Twelve?"

"Okay, I see your point.", then he did his sneak thing and disappeared back up to the boys dormitories.

"I guess this means I'll have to get used to the twat."

"You're just mad because he kicked your ass."

"I most certainly am not because I do not recall anyone kicking my ass."

"I remember it differently."

"What would you know, you were probably busy ogling him anyways."

"Ugh, not this again."

"…tell me I'm handsome and I'll forgive you."

"You're a prat. A _handsome_ prat. Although, truly, I would say you're more gorgeous than you are handsome."

He peeked an eye open at her. "You cheated...but you are forgiven."

"Blaise?"

"Hm?", he looked up from the book he was reading.

"I…uh", he stopped, searching for what he was going to say. He nervously scratched the back of his head. "Where…do we-you and I-stand exactly. Am I…we…or am I just a friend that you snogged to find out that you liked blokes?"

Blaise sucked on a piece of butterscotch as he mulled it over. He closed his book and got up from his bed and walked over to Vincent.

"I would…very much like to try a 'we'.", he said smiling and putting his arms around Vincent's neck.

"So would I."

Sanya walked into Dumbledore's office to join the rest of the Hogwarts faculty. Dumbledore stood as she entered.

"I have called you all here today because, as I'm sure you are all aware, Voldemort is bound to strike soon. I want to make sure that we are prepared for this war as much as possible. We shall house all the students in the Great Hall tonight and however many nights it is until he strikes.", he paused for a moment to gather his thoughts.

"I have checked the barriers around Hogwarts and they are all sturdy and in place. Do any of you have anything you would like to add?"

Sanya stood, "I would like to forewarn all of you…any actions you see from me…that is, do not be shocked. I shall help as much as I am allowed.", she said cryptically.

More words were passed back and forth between the professors and Dumbledore before they disassembled and Severus and Sanya found themselves awkwardly heading towards the dungeons together.

"Sanya-"

"Save it Severus."

"But I-"

"It's _fine_. We all do things that we regret. It would be foolish for me to fret over it when there are worse matters at hand."

"…I'm sorry."

She sighed before turning to walk up to her tower. "You are", she sorted through her feelings for a moment, "mostly forgiven."

Severus took the twinkle in her eye as a good sign.

Sanya stood with the other professors watching over the students as they slept, or tried to sleep. Must were too upset to sleep because they knew something was up when they had to gather in such a manner.

Sanya looked down at Stephanie, Blaise, Draco and Vincent and her stomach twisted in knots. 'Please let them be okay.", she prayed as she closed her eyes tightly shut.


	34. Chapter 34

Ch.34

That morning, everyone was all a-twitter because word got out that the death eaters were on the move.

The students stood towards the back of the Great Hall, away from the large double-doors. The professors were grouped together at the front.

"For Merlin's sake! Stop wringing your hands, you're making me nervous.", Minerva said to Sanya.

"I'm sorry, it's just that-", her head jerked up,"-I have to go, I'll be right back!"

Everyone was quite shocked when she just apparated right there in front of them.

A moment later, Sanya returned. Her hair was blonde and her black and white wings were visible, her eyes an unnatural shade of blue that seemed to carry their own light. Everything from her jacket with a high, curled collar, to her pants and boots were a bright white. The kind of white that made Severus' mind jump back immediately to the book that Sanya showed him before. So white that she seemed to be glowing-which she very well could have been.

She walked a few steps, to rejoin the group of professors.

"I don't really have time to explain right now.", she said, bringing her right thumb up to her mouth and biting the tip of it enough to make it bleed. She touched each of her fingers to it and then pressed the finger of her left hand to those of her right. She place her fingers on the back of her neck over a cross marking and her thumbs over her collarbones.

"Valkyrian restrictions level zero.", her words seemed to echo throughout the hall with some kind of unseen power.

The blood spots from her fingers glowed a bright blue before disappearing and the crystal cross necklace around her neck disintegrated. A bright light flashed just above her and she snatched her hand up as a claw-like choker wrapped partially around her neck. A wand appeared out of the bright light and she flipped it in her hand, wand point down, before placing it in her belt.

"Long story short, I'm not human."

"I think we figured that out on our own, Sanya.", Minerva said, somewhat aggravated at her for flinging it on them at such a time.

Dumbledore perked up for a moment and then informed everyone that the barrier around the school had been tripped.

The faculty made their way outdoors to face the death eaters while the students waited for the onslaught to reach the castle.

Sanya was one of the first to strike and she took out a small group with one wave of her crystal wand. With that the war had started.

Eventually the death eaters and others allied to Voldemort made their way past the professors in the gaps amongst them.

The fighting had been going on for a long time when Sanya started to feel strange and her form started to flicker back. She cursed and nervously licked her lips. She needed to find someone to back her up so she could try and seek safety for the moment. Eventually she managed to find Severus.

"Severus! I have a bit of a problem."

"Don't we all!"

"I'm turning human!"

"What?"

"My magic has run out and I'm turning mortal. I need to recharge."

Severus turned to talk to her but his words fell on deaf ears as Sanya went into panic. Bellatrix was a ways off behind him and Sanya saw a green light. She swore that time stopped as she grabbed Severus by the shoulders and twisted them around.

Sanya's body fell lifelessly into Severus' arms, completely limp. Her dull brown eyes stared up into the sky.


	35. Chapter 35

Ch.35

Severus felt for a heartbeat and found none, Sanya-the supposedly immortal-was _dead_.

"Damn, I missed.", Bellatrix said, pouting.

Severus leveled a look at her that, had Bellatrix had any sense, should have sent her running.

"You wouldn't happen to know where my dear little nephew is, would you?", she said, her trademark grin back on her face.

"You will get to my godson over my dead body."

"How about over hers, instead?", she said, cackling.

Sanya had some good days and some bad days, just like everyone else did…today was definitely a bad day.

She groggily sat up and squinted against the bright light.

"Salazar's big toe!", she spat out.

One moment she was fighting death eaters and the next she's back in front of the overlords.

She sat where she was with her legs sprawled out before her, utterly, and completely confused.

"Sanya Slytherin-Romaine", the male overlord's gruff voice boomed over the council.

"Ah!", she said and scrambled to her feet.

"We must say we're rather surprised at your rash action to save the mortal when you knew you were drained of your magic."

"I am…sorry?", Sanya really wasn't sure how she was supposed to react in this situation.

"What he's saying, dear," the female overlord's soft and strong voice washed over everyone, "is that it's not yet your time. You still have much yet ahead of you."

"Wha-", Sanya was about to ask what that meant exactly when she felt like her stomach had bottomed out and she had a moment of unconsciousness again.

Sanya came to, feeling like she had just run headlong into a brick wall. She was just in time to see Severus shoot the avada kadavra, from where he kneeled, at Bellatrix and see her crazy ass drop dead on the spot. How long had she been gone from here? & why was Severus holding her?

Severus looked down at Sanya with a grief stricken expression, that very quickly turned into shock as he realized that she was alive again and had taken up her Valkyrie form. Then he dropped her like she was contagious and she hit the ground from about 6 inches above it.

"Ow. Thanks, I appreciate it.", she said sarcastically.

"You're…_alive_.", he said still not believing his eyes.

"So it appears."

Somewhere over to their right there was an uproar.

When they managed to make their way over they found Harry Potter and Voldemort face to face. Voldemort shot the avada kadavra at Harry, whom in retaliation, used expelliarmus. The curse rebounded and hit him instead. The crowd around stood shocked for a moment before a great ruckus arose. Just like that, the dark lord had been, once again, defeated-killed by his own curse.

After the commotion calmed down, Sanya began searching around the grounds for her niece and came across Fenrir lying on the ground. He was holding his left hand over a wound in his chest, struggling to breathe.

"Fenrir!", Sanya hurriedly got down on her knees beside him.

He looked up at her with a bittersweet expression on his face.

"Sanya.", he said as he lifted his hand up to softly touch her face.

Phantomkizz: I hope my writing hasn't gotten too crappy, I'm fine at writing dialogue-but long descriptive scenes…well, they could stand some improvement. ^^'

Once again, another short chapter because I'm dragging the ending of this thing out for all it's worth. = P


	36. Chapter 36

Ch.36

"…you're crying." Fenrir's voice was raspy and wet.

"Fenrir! What-you're…."

"It's funny, at one time I would have been-", he took a moment to swallow, "been pretty mad to die, but I can't help but-but feel horribly sad."

"Shut up! Don't say something like that."

"At least I got to see you one last time."

Sanya had heard enough, she placed both her hands over his wound and began working all of her magic into it.

"What're you-"

"I _refuse_ to let you die!", she shouted, determination shining fiercely in her eyes.

At some point while she was healing him, he lost consciousness. The wound had started closing shut and she just barely managed to finish when her powers started flickering out again. When the wound was healed she looked and he wasn't breathing. When she began to panic his chest rose with a shallow breath.

She drew her hands away in time to look up and see the Slytherin four running over to her, ecstatic that she was alive. Suddenly they froze where they were running, and everything around Sanya stopped moving. For a split second there was a crushing silence and the eerie feeling of being absolutely alone before Sanya was blinded by a bright flash. Her eyes adjusted and she looked before her to see the overlords and the members of the high and low court of Valkyries before her.

The ethereal voice of the female overlord washed over her for the second time that day.

"Hello again, Sanya. We have had much to deliberate over. You have prevented the death of many mortals today."

Sanya held her breath, would it be too much to hope for?

"Congratulations dear, you are now free of your past crimes."

After Sanya had been put under Voldemorts control she had gone through a Valkyrie trial and been demoted to the lowest class that existed within Valkyrie order, which is why her wings were the strange black and white mix.

"But that isn't all.", she drew a long sword from her side and walked over to where Sanya sat, "By decree of the overlords and the council, Sanya Silvant Slytherin-Romaine, you are now promoted to the low court of Valkyrie."

Sanya stared, completely dazzled. The overlord smiled at her and they all left. Time started moving again-Stephanie reached her and threw her arms around her. The stress of everything finally caught up to Sanya and as she hugged her niece back she started to laugh and cry.

Sanya managed to get herself together and joined rest of the professors once more-after she squeezed the life out of her niece in another crippling hug again.

"The students will be sent home because, as it's quite obvious, Hogwarts is not fit to house anyone properly for the time being. Severus, I need you to brew up some potions to cure some of the students-Hagrid, make sure everyone makes it to the train.", he nodded to all of them and announced to the students that they would be going home a few weeks early this year, which wasn't a surprise to anyone.

Severus looked at the list of potions needed and his eyes nearly bugged out of his head. As if on queue, Sanya peaked her head in through the door.

"Need any help?", she said with a small, warm smile on her face.

"It would be foolish of me to decline any, if you're offering."

"I'll be back then."

A few minutes later they were both working, side by side. One would finish with one ingredient and slide it over to the other on the table top-in perfect timing. When one batch was finished, they would call for one of the students that were lending a hand to bring it to the hospital wing.

"Careful Miss Granger.", Sanya told her as she passed her the holder with still hot vials in it.

"Is this all?"

"It should be for the time being."

"Okay, thank you professor."

Following Hermione's leave Sanya sighed.

"Holy newts, I feel practically dead on my feet!"

Severus gave her a dirty look.

"Eugh! I mean, wow I'm tired!", she coughed nervously, trying to cover her slip up.

Severus sat down in a chair and Sanya sat and scooted him over so that she could occupy half the chair.

"Excuse me! Do you mind?"

"Not at all."

"Could you be anymore uncouth?"

"Sorry, I'm a little too brain dead-er-drained to be polite at the moment.", she caught herself as she was leveled yet another glare from the potions master behind her.

Silence passed between the two of them as they both sat there exhausted.

"I have a question, although I fear I may be overstepping my boundaries."

"That's never stopped you before."

Sanya could practically feel his trademark scowl drilling into the back of her head.

"But please, continue."

"When you were surrounded before…who was that man that-"

"I'm assuming you're talking about the man in the memory that you took it upon yourself to pry into. He was my fiancée. I thought I was in love, but as you saw, I was a fool.", she fiddled with her nails for a while before continuing, "While my resolve was somewhat weakened Voldemort cast the imperious on me. I was too grief-stricken to resist. For a few years I stayed under his control, completely unaware of what was going on. When I came to, my sister and her husband lay dead before me and I could hear Stephanie, just a baby at the time, crying. I had killed her parents. So I did all that I could to make sure that she grew up as happy as possible, despite not knowing her mother and father." She told the whole story in a distant manner.

"I truly am quite sorry."

"Not your fault."

Sanya fingered the metal choker around her neck.

"So, Lily huh?

She heard Severus sigh heavily behind her.

"Yes."

Sanya had Stephanie go home with Blaise, after she made sure it was okay with his parents, so that she may stay behind and help rebuild the castle-by magical means.

Sanya yawned before flopping groggily, still fully garbed in Valkyrie gear, onto her plush mattress. No sooner had her face hit her pillow was she asleep, dead to the world.


	37. Chapter 37

Ch.37

After a week of working on the castle, with help from all odds and ends of people, it was finally looking almost like normal. A few small details, such as the ceiling over the Great Hall, had yet to be fixed. Sanya believed it was time for her to go home, everyone else could deal with the castle. But she had to say goodbye to someone before leaving.

Sanya wore a short, white oriental style dress; a royal purple jacket with a pointed asymmetrical collar; and a pair of purple heels-her hair done up in a pair of white chopsticks. Her heels clacked on the stone floor as she walked into the dungeons that she had frequented so often that year.

"Hello Severus.", she said with that warm way of smiling that she had perfected.

"Yes?"

"I just wanted to say, before leaving, that I'm very glad you're alive and that I met you."

She walked up to him and placed her arms around his neck in a hug.

"You're very dear to me.", she said prior to drawing away and placing a kiss on the corner of his mouth. With that, she disappeared in a swirl of white light-leaving quickly before she went into hysterics over her rash actions.

Severus wouldn't have believed it happened at all, had a small bit of evidence not been left behind. Out of the air, he caught a single black feather.

Phantomkizz: Dun dun dun dunnnn! This is the end! The sequal shall be started soon and is probably going to be more Steph-Draco-Blaise-Vincent centric. The title of the next one is going to be 'Of Snakes and Mischief'


End file.
